A Clockwork Bro
by Hetalia Red
Summary: Prequel to Two Eds and a Bro. While in prison, Eddy's brother reflects on his past that shaped him into the individual that he is today. From meeting his friends Seth and Lucas to befriending a mentally ill Vietnam War veteran, Matthew was shaped into the enigma and monster that his brother and the rest of the neighborhood remember well. Implied BroEdd throughout story.
1. Matthew McGee

A/N: I don't own Bro (Matthew), Eddy, or some of the other characters. They are owned by Danny Antonucci and AKA Cartoon. I do own the original characters of the story though. I don't make any money from writing this story either.

Matthew gazed out the window as the prison bus he rode in past several cornfields. He was found guilty for beating the shit of Sasha and Matthew would be put into a penitentiary with all of the other animals of society. To makes matters worse, he was going to be put in solitary confinement, so he would become a caged animal that is not allowed to roam with other caged animals. Prison was already starting to bite.

In fact, there were other things about being locked up that drove him insane. The first thing that drove him insane was being put on antidepressants by the jail staff and would be put on them by the prison staff. Matthew fumed at logic behind the whole justice system. He was found sane enough to be found guilty of a crime, but found insane enough to be medicated. Antidepressants made him feel numb like he was a zombie of his former self. He couldn't feel as angry at the things that would normally enrage him when he was not medicated. Another bad part about being medicated was that it took longer for Matthew to get off than when he was not on antidepressants. It made him feel impotent, especially considering how many times a week he would jack off before.

It did not help that he could not write to his princess while he was locked up, especially with the prison staff snooping around his mail like hawks. It was not over between him and his princess until he said it was over. Matthew felt disgusted when he imagined the things that his little princess would do with his own brother while he was locked up.

Matthew did as any other prisoner might do in his situation. He dwelled on where his life had reached a pointed where there was no turning back. The more he thought about it, the more he concluded that the turning point of his life was when he first moved to Peach Creek back when he was seven or eight years old.

He was born and grew up in the city. Pretty clichéd, but that was the reality of the situation. His parents moved back to their hometown for two reasons; Matthew's dad, Carl, got a job at a used car lot and Matthew's mom, Margaret, was pregnant, so the family needed a bigger space to live in. His parents were excited to be in their new house and to begin a new life in Peach Creek.

There were only two new houses on the block at the time; their pink house and a green one that was further down the block. There was also an old abandoned house that was a block away from the cul-de-sac, but nobody lived there. The green house was inhabited by a pair of newlyweds who moved in about the same time that they did. Welcome to Peach Creek!

His parents sent him to school when they first unloaded the car to their new house. They did not give him a day to adjust to the new changes. So he was guided into his new assigned classroom by the principal. The old second grade teacher with the thick-rimmed glasses guided Matthew inside the classroom and introduced him to the whole class. Years later, Matthew forgot her name, but it wasn't too important. Matthew was homeschooled before he came to Peach Creek, so he did not know what to expect.

Jeers from his fellow classmates were the last thing he ever expected. "Look at that porker! How many Twinkies has he eaten today? Fifty?" That lovely comment came from none other than Darcy. As Matthew later found out along with Darcy's name, Darcy was the school's golden boy.

"I'm only 90 pounds, sissy boy!" Matthew shouted, curling his hands into fists.

"Oh my gosh! He's from the city? He looks like one of the thugs from that one movie! That is, if, like, the thug had a kid with a bulldog." One of the girls in the classroom sneered. He later found out that the girl was the feminine equivalent to Darcy at their school. She looked like type of girl that had been in plenty of beauty pageants. Matthew later found out that the girl's name was Stacy.

"You wish, toots," Matthew retorted, trying desperately to ignore the other students laughing at him.

"Enough!" The teacher shouted, "Matthew, sit in the back!"

Matthew stomped his way towards the back of the class. He flopped down at his desk. His face was as red as the apple on the teacher's desk. He sulked in his chair as his teacher droned on about the Titanic. It was his first day of school and it already sucked. Matthew noticed that the kids he sat with were the only ones who did not laugh at him when the two blond kids were calling him a fat thug. The kids he sat with in class would later impact him for the rest of his life.

He observed the three kids that he sat next to. They seemed different from the other children, even though they looked somewhat average. To his left sat a kid that wore a medical mask which covered the lower part of his face. The kid wore camouflage pants, an old white t-shirt, and an old army jacket that fit the kid like a bathrobe. The kid's hair was dark brown hair and cut short in a buzz cut. The kid doodled cars, swords, and snakes on his notebook. Even back then, the kid was not a bad artist. The kid later grew up to be the Seth Alexander Lovering that he knew in the present.

To his right sat a cheerful kid that looked like he would be best friends with someone like the blond who called him fat. The kid had light brown hair that was neatly cut. He wore a light blue polo with a crocodile logo and designer jeans, though Matthew did not recognize those clothing items as designer clothing at the time. The kid was making origami birds out of notebook paper. That kid later grew up to be the Lucas Malcolm Holmes he knew in the present.

The kid behind him was just as quiet as the rest of the kids he sat with. The kid had on thick rimmed glasses that were fogged at the bottom. His red hair was parted down the middle and fell down to the middle of his neck. The kid wore a dark green hoodie and black jeans. The redhead was reading a 3rd grade reading level horror chapter book. That kid would grow up to be the one who put Matthew in jail; Sasha Ryan Barr.

Lunchtime was not any better. He tried to sit at several tables, but the people who sat at the tables glared at him like he was a damn parasite. The two blonds that made fun of him earlier were making pig noises from their table at him. Was he really that damn fat? He wanted to pour paint all over the girl's dress and put tacks in the boy's seat. However, there was no use into doing that on his first day of school. Matthew was about to eat his lunch in the corner when he heard someone call out to him. He hesitantly turned to the source of the noise.

The source came from one of the tables where the three kids he sat with earlier were seated. The kid in the mask motioned for him to join them. Matthew walked over to the table hesitantly and stood in front of the table, not sure on what to say to the three. The kids at the school already gave him the cold shoulder, who's to say that these three would act any different towards him?

The kid in the mask undid his mask to eat goulash that was served. Matthew couldn't see what was behind the mask though, because the kid hid his face with his free hand. The kid kept his hand over the lower part of his face and extends the hand he was eating with towards Matthew, "I guess you met the gruesome twosome, Darcy and Stacy. They're the most popular kids at school and make it their job to bully other kids and the school does nothing about it."

"I see that," Matthew replied, still standing. Matthew shook the kid's hand. "What's up with the other kids?"

"They're meanies just like Darcy and Stacy." The kid answered, sourly, "Welcome to the loser table, Matthew was it? I'm Seth. Go ahead and sit with us."

"Hi Seth," Matthew nodded, sitting down, "The loser table? I haven't been here a day and they think I'm a loser?"

Seth nodded, "they think anyone who is different from them is `losers.' It sucks. I know."

"Why do they consider me a loser? Why do they consider any of you a loser?" Matthew demanded angrily, woofing down goulash.

Seth gazed at him thoughtfully, "I'm here, because I wear a mask over my mouth sometimes and they think I have vampire fangs, monster teeth, or cooties. Also, I'm sorry you have to hear it from me, but they don't like you because you're new and you're fat. I heard it when you were in the lunch line."

"They also said that Matthew would eat all of their food," The boy with light brown hair chimed in.

"Thank you, Lucas," Seth replied sarcastically and turned to Lucas, "Don't mind Lucas. From what I seen in the last two years, the guy does not know how to talk with people right. He does it with everyone, so don't feel bad."

"Why does he sit at this table? He looks like he should be best buds with Darcy. Why is the redhead here?" Matthew questioned.

Lucas made puking noises at the comment of him ever being best friends with Darcy. Seth snickered a bit and answered, "Lucas is stupid when it comes to people, has a sickness that can't be cured where he can't eat sugar, and cut open the class hamster in front of everyone. The redhead is Sasha and he's here because he wears glasses and talks about nothing but scary stuff like Bloody Mary."

"Okay," Matthew replied, continuing to eat his goulash. The table fell silent. He set his milk to the side. He knew what milk would do to him and did not want that to spend any time over the toilet puking. He looked around the table to observe the other kids. Lucas was splitting the goulash where he could not consume the whole thing. Seth was purposely avoiding the bag of nuts on his school tray. Sasha seemed to eat everything on his plate just fine.

At the end of lunch period, one of the lunch ladies yelled at them for not finishing their trays. Matthew tried to explain to her that he was lactose intolerant, but the lunch lady ignored him. The lunch lady had them stay after to clean each of the tables. Matthew muttered "old witch" under his breath several times until all the tables were clean. As if the day could not get any worse.

It's funny that Matthew still remembered that day sixteen years later. He remembered watching a boring talk show once where it was discussed about how much of an impact childhood bullying had on a person's emotional state. Matthew did not like to think that it had much of an impact on how he ended up where he was today, but something told him that it had more of an impact than he was aware of. He glanced at the handcuffs on his wrist. He pondered about how much thinking he would do while he was locked up. He did not want to remember the bad stuff, but without the constant desire for sexual release to or alcohol to wash away his memories, he would be doing a lot of it.

A/N: Between this prequel and the sequel, I'm not sure which I'm going to do more updating on. I'm just going to go with the artistic flow and see which one I feel like extending on at particular moments.


	2. Sasha Barr

A week had passed since he had been transported to the prison and instantly put into an isolation cell. The isolation cell had a shatterproof window where he could gaze out to see the forest from a short distance of the prison. The orange and red landscape that he could view from window had turned pitch white. Since he was not allowed to have much in his isolation cell, he settled for looking out the window lost in his own thoughts.

The snow fell to the ground. Everything was covered in a white frozen blanket. In fact, the forest looked like a card he received from his senile old grandfather once for Christmas. Speaking of which, that dreaded holiday was less than a month and he already knew what he was probably getting for Christmas; cards. How much cards depended upon who gotten guilt-tripped the most at his damn trial. At the most, he probably would get one from his mom and Eddy, Seth, Lucas, and his daughters. If they really felt guilt-tripped enough, they might part a bit of money for him to buy snacks and hygiene products from the prison commissary, not that he would be able to purchase anything from there any time soon due to his current predicament.

He cursed Sasha's name. If it wasn't for that damn bastard, he would not be behind bars in the first place. He wished Sasha never exist. In fact, he wished Sasha had never been born. He wished Sasha's mother had gotten an abortion in the first place. He wished that Sasha's father would have pulled out and made Sasha's mother swallow the semen that had created Sasha. Everything bad that happened in his life was all Sasha's fault.

He entertained himself with memories of how Sasha stopped being just another kid at the loser table and became a so-called victim of Matthew's "bullying." It had begun months after his first day at school. He had spent those months pulling pranks and scamming people out of their hard-earned allowances. He pulled numerous pranks during that time and was only caught twice; once when he TP-ed the principal's office and once when he throw a paper airplane at the teacher's head. Perhaps his favorite out of all of the pranks he pulled was when he filled Stacy's and Darcy's desk with garter snakes that he found outside of the school. To his amusement, both of them screamed and cried fat tears as the harmless snakes slithered around and hissed warnings at the screaming duo. Several other members of their little clique also reacted the same way to the snakes while the teacher quickly phoned the janitor to help her with the class's snake problem.

While the pranks were starting to become grand, the scams he set up were lackluster. Students walked by his early scams and did not even bother to check them out. He did have a few "pigeons" so to speak, but they were few and far between. He managed to scam a couple of students and the entire losers club. The losers club was not too happy about that, but Lucas and Seth could not stay pissed at the person that traded them his milk every day for pasta, pudding, or a cafeteria dish containing nuts. One day he decided that he needed an underling to help him with his scams.

After a process of elimination, so to speak, he set his sights on Sasha. Sasha was relatively smart and would serve his needs well. However, in order to make sure that Sasha was right for the part, Matthew had to observe the boy outside of school. He stalked Sasha as Sasha walked home from school. Matthew was lead into a different neighborhood that seemed like a relatively cozy middle class neighborhood with yards that seemed to be regularly tended to. Sasha kept turning around as he walked and Matthew hid himself to prevent from being seen. It seemed that Sasha was constantly anxious about something, but Matthew could not put his finger on what it was exactly.

Matthew hid behind a car as he watched Sasha walked towards and entered his house. The house was a one story house with a driveway, a little garden out front, and lilac bushes everywhere. Matthew hid amongst a large lilac bush and watched Sasha from inside of the bush with his binoculars that he brought for that particular purpose.

Envy immediately struck the eight year old. Inside of the house was Sasha sitting on the couch, doing his homework on a TV tray. Beside him sat a man that Matthew later found out was Sasha's father. Sasha's father was helping him out with homework and a woman was giving Sasha a small plate of homemade cookies. Sasha thanked his mom and returned to his homework. Matthew's own mom used to be that attentive, but since she announced to Matthew that she was pregnant, she spent most of her attention on the unborn baby. As for Matthew's dad, however, he was always cold towards him. He acted more as an authority figure than a father.

It took about two hours until Sasha left the living room. Matthew worried about his mother getting pissed that he would arrive home later than he usually did. He started to doubt that when he considered how obsessed his mom was over her swollen stomach. During that two hour timeframe, Sasha finished his homework for the day, ate his snack, and watched TV.

Matthew watched as Sasha exited out of the living room. He wondered where the redhead was going. He had seen one of the lights turn on. He sneaked to another lilac bush to continue to spy on Sasha. Sasha was in what looked like to be his bedroom. The room was covered in plastic Halloween decorations and action figures. A Dungeons and Dragons board sat in the middle of all of the tacky decorations around the room. An old basset hound sat on top on Sasha's bed, sleeping like an old bear. It was kind of bizarre to see so many Halloween decorations in one room. The decorations also stayed up year round as if every day was Halloween to Sasha, as Matthew later found out.

Sasha greeted the old dog on the bed by petting it, "I'm home, you lazy old mutt."

The dog immediately woke up, wagged its tail, and started licking Sasha's hand. Then the dog started sniffing the air and then barked, growled, and howled at the window from the bed. The dog had picked up Matthew's scent from the yard. Matthew hid deeper within the lilac bush, knowing that if Sasha caught him, he would get in serious trouble over being in someone else's yard. He could still see from where he crouched down. Sasha opened the window and gazed out it.

Matthew let out a quiet sigh of relief when Sasha turned around, closing the window behind him, and scolded the dog, "be quiet! You can chase after the darn squirrels in the morning."

The dog made one last whine and lay down uneasily, knowing that a stranger was still in the yard. Sasha sighed, "If you're good after I get a bath and go down to dinner, I'll give you half of my pork chop. The dog turned and wagged his tail. "Good dog!" Sasha turned towards his dresser and got out a pajama set. Sasha changed out of his clothes. Sasha then put a dark green robe on and grabbed a basket that was filled with toiletries, most likely getting ready to go take a shower.

Matthew blushed at seeing his fellow classmate naked. He had never seen anyone naked before with the exception of walking in on his parents changing once. He also did not even know the similarities between boys and noted that his and Sasha's private areas looked the same. He did not want to think about it any further. He ran from the lilac bush, running straight home without taking a single glance back.

The next day at school, Matthew sat down at the loser's table for lunch. He avoided looking at Sasha all morning. Besides the awkwardness of seeing the other boy changing the night before, Matthew also feared that Sasha or his parents might have seen him lurking around their house. At the lunch table, Sasha did not scold him for trespassing nor flinch in Matthew's presence. The only one that probably knew he was there that night was the dumb dog.

Matthew tapped Sasha on the shoulder and asked him to meet him in a secluded part of the playground near the large pine tree. Sasha agreed and everything seemed to have been going according to plan. He would have asked Sasha to join him in on his schemes and Sasha would be his right hand man. That is if things went Matthew's way.

Sasha met up with him and asked him what he needed, Sasha's face filled with curiosity. Matthew decided to cut to the chase, "Sasha, wouldn't you like to not get picked on anymore by Darcy, Stacy, or their jerk friends?"

"Yeah, I hate being picked on by them," Sasha agreed. It seemed that Sasha and he were in the same boat regarding that issue.

"Great, I am too!" Matthew cheered, "I know just how to get them to leave us alone."

"How?" Sasha asked curiously.

Matthew grinned, "We'll be liked by them by scamming them out of all of their allowances and by pulling pranks on them. Think about it, they would do nothing to us if they are too poor and afraid of us. It would be great! We'll fight fire with fire!"

"It would not be great!" Sasha protested loudly. "You would just be acting like them!"

"They deserve it, Sasha!" Matthew yelled, "They pick on us every single day and I'm tired of being called fatso! I bet you're tired of them calling you a dweeb."

"I am tired of it," Sasha retorted, "but I'm not taking part in your stupid failed scams! They're lame and stupid! You're acting no better than Darcy, Matthew McGee!"

"You have ten seconds to take that back!" Matthew hissed. His young eyes were probably filled with rage, because Sasha flinched when he saw them.

"No!" Sasha shouted, "I don't want any part in it!"

Matthew charged at Sasha as fast as his little legs could. Sasha tried to push Matthew away from him, but Matthew was much heavier than he was. Sasha was pushed into the pine tree, his head and back hit the bark and his arms hit the pine needles. Sasha wailed at the pain of getting pricked by pine needles and from the pain in his back and the back of his head. Hot tears streamed down Sasha's face. "If you tattle-tell on me for what happened; I'll break your legs!" Matthew whispered harshly, before walking away.

That was the first time that Matthew had ever hurt Sasha. Sixteen years later and things have not changed much, except for the fact that Sasha never told on him for the incident involving the pine tree. The biggest irony of remembering that incident was that he was now in prison for hurting Sasha. It's funny how things turned out.

After that incident, Sasha pretty much became his lifelong enemy and sex partner at one point. Neither Seth nor Lucas knew about what happened at the pine tree. Matthew was not willing on telling them about what had happened. In his eyes, it was just a moment where his lost his temper. Just like the time after that and the time after that. Just like what happened at Sasha's bar. Sasha pushed Matthew's buttons, so he dealt with redhead to put Sasha back in his place.

Also after that incident, Sasha sat further away from Matthew at the loser table. Seth and Lucas found it kind of bizarre and even tried to figure out what Sasha's problem was when Sasha was out of earshot. Sasha would not tell them what happened. Lucas came to the conclusion on his own that Sasha thought he was too good for them and begun to despise the redhead. Seth did not express what he thought, other than Sasha was acting strange.


	3. Lucas Holmes

The guards passed a gold-colored envelope into his cell. The guard announced that he had mail and fell silent. Matthew inspected the letter and seen that it was from Lucas. He opened the letter and pulled out a card and a hundred dollar bill fell out. A piece of paper also fell out with the words "IOU" written across the slip of paper. The card does not say much except Lucas wishing Matthew a Merry "Shitmas" and that Seth and he would visit Matthew soon.

Lucas was still loyal after all of these years. The extent of Lucas' loyalty also kind of freaked  
>Matthew out, but he would be the last to admit it. Lucas kept at Matthew's side like a jealous lover or a man crazily obsessed with a celebrity. Despite Lucas' creepy devotion to him, he still regarded Lucas as an important pawn in his life.<p>

He wondered if it had anything to do with when Lucas first became his pawn a few days after the pine tree incident with Sasha. After Sasha rejected him, Matthew was still on the prowl for new lackeys. Since he found Lucas a softer nut to crack than Seth, Lucas was the next of the losers' table that Matthew had his eyes on.

Like with Sasha, Matthew stalked Lucas home, making sure to keep out of sight. Lucky for Matthew, Lucas did not live as far from the school as Sasha did. In fact, Lucas lived three blocks away from Sasha. The neighborhood Lucas lived in was a pretty high end upper middle class neighborhood. The wealth was on display in the neighborhood. Lion statues and fountains were on almost every lawn throughout the whole neighborhood. Lucas' house was no exception. Compared to mansion Lucas lived in at the moment, the house was a rusty old shack. However, the large Victorian house was still nicer than anything than Matthew had ever lived in.

The yard was filled with neatly trimmed shrubs and large statues to hide behind. Lucas went inside of his house and Matthew hid in a scrub to avoid getting detected. In the windows, he had seen a couple maids mopping and dusting. He also had seen an imposing man in a business suit. The man looked very stern and stoical. Compared to this man, his own dad looked like a softie. The man spoke in a harsh accented voice, "Lucas!" The man shoved Lucas' progress report in his face, "what in the bloody hell is this? You know damn well I expect excellence out of you. You got a C average on your report card? Are you going to blame this on your diabetes too? I buy sugar substitutes, insulin shots, and diabetes pills. Why the hell can't you keep your damn diabetes under control? Dr. Alpine called me today and told me that your blood sugar was a bit higher than normal last time you were at his office. That is inexcusable! Have you been getting chocolate from other kids at school? You know you're diabetic! It's not the food that Sylvia and Wendy have been fixing!"

"No Father, I haven't had any candy," Lucas' voice cracked, "school is too much for me sometimes and I get answers wrong."

"What the hell do you have to be so stressed out over?" Lucas' dad bickered, "I work 12 hours a goddamn day and come home and deal with a failure for a son! Not to mention I have to oversee everything in this damn house. At least your grandfather Malcolm and babushka Olga don't have to see what a failure you have become."

"They loved me," Lucas squeaked, meekly.

"I don't give a damn," Lucas' dad snapped, "Get out of my sight and go do your homework or something, you lazy bum!"

Lucas rushed past his dad and bolted outside and ran toward the wooden swing set in the yard and sat on the swing. He buried his hands in his face. "I want to kill daddy! I want to kill him and take over this house! I want to take a knife and cut him open!"

As Lucas sulked, a snake slithered by him. Lucas watched the snake with pure malice. He picked it up and talked to the snake, "I want to see what your insides look like, snake!" Lucas pulled out a knife and pressed it against the snake's scales.

That's when Matthew decided to intervene. Lucas saw Matthew coming out of the shrub and kept his knife on the snake. The snake curled its neck. Matthew knew it was about ready to strike at Lucas, knowing that it was in danger. "Is this some kind of working class thing? Showing up unannounced?" Lucas asked Matthew.

"No, dude, I came to offer you a deal." Matthew answered, "If you want it, you would need to let go of that snake first."

Lucas sneered at him, "Why should I?"

"Like you, that little guy just wants to live a long life and fulfill its role in life." Matthew replied, "It's not the snake's fault that your dad is a jerk. I seen the way your dad talked to you and I know that you take your anger out on animals, because your dad is big and stuff and animals are weak."

"That does not make me want to kill this snake or you any less!" Lucas scowled. He felt something take the snake and his knife away from him. Lucas looked up and seen the snake wrapped around Matthew's arm and his pocket knife in Matthew's hand.

"Hey, that's mine!" Lucas shouted and charged at Matthew. Matthew pocketed the knife and dodged Lucas.

"Not anymore," Matthew replied, "besides, I know how you can get revenge on both your father and the kids at school without killing anything."

"Oh yeah? How?" Lucas looked at him incredulously.

"Pranks and scams," Matthew replied.

"Don't mess with me, you idiot!" Lucas shouted, grabbing for Matthew's throat.

Matthew quickly grabbed for Lucas' midsection and tossed him to the ground. Matthew sat on Lucas' torso and pulled out the knife, "I don't want to hurt you, Lucas. Just hear me out first."

Lucas quaked with fear. He underestimated Matthew, "what does scams and pranks have to do with me and my father?"

"They would help you earn your revenge against your enemies," Matthew replied, "nothing makes enemies madder than having a wad of cash in your pocket. I can see it. You're tired of people picking on you. You want to prove to everyone that you're not a failure. Listen, I can see great talent in you and if you join me, you can use them."

Lucas' eyes softened, "It sounds really great."

"You would be answering to me too. I would be your friend and your leader," Matthew replied, getting up. He helped Lucas up and continued, "I'm going to make you somebody in return, somebody that would be respected in time."

"I'll do it," Lucas nodded, "it would be like that song `Opportunities.'"

"That's great," Matthew replied and then looked at Lucas strangely, "song?"

"You know, the one that goes; `You got the brawn. I got the brains. Let's make lots of money," Lucas replied, "I know working class have access to the music of The Pet Shop Boys. Don't they?"

"That's the first thing that needs to change," Matthew commanded, "No more of that "working class" stuff. For now on, I rule over you as your leader!"

Lucas scowled, "That's not fair! I have more money than you! My dad is an important man. My mom is an heiress!"

"Yeah, I don't give two craps about that," Matthew replied, "I beat you back there by taking your knife and you are now my underling, like it or not."

"Alright, alright!" Lucas huffed, "The Bolshies always beat the Tsars, always! –Or at least that's what my grandma says."

"Right," Matthew replied, not understanding what Lucas said, "Also, no more killing animals. Those animals just want food in their bellies, houses, and to make babies. They're not hurting you by existing. If you want to hurt someone, hurt the ones that deserve it. Darcy, Stacy, their gang, and eventually your dad. It has to be sneaky and underhanded so they don't realize that any damage has occurred until it's too late. As for your dad, that's going to be much later."

"I get it. I get it." Lucas grinned, "We do a sneak attack on them that they won't even feel."

"That's the idea," Matthew replied. He sat the garner snake down. The snake slithered away, disappearing into the grass. It got to live to see another day. "With a good scam, more people would part with their allowances. In order to have a good scam, you need a good plan to start the project up. Get my drift?"

"Your ideas are good, but you suck at making things for your scams and that's why barely anyone is fooled by them," Lucas explained, "if you want to create a good scam. You must make things that people would find believable."

"And I suppose that you know how to make things," Matthew glared.

Lucas grinned smugly, "as a matter of fact, I do. If you would follow me into my garage, I would show you!"

"Fine," Matthew curiously followed Lucas, still miffed over Lucas telling that his creations were subpar. Lucas pushed a button to open his garage. Gadgets and wooden creations littered the garage. Cuckoo clocks hung from the walls, ticking away as Matthew stepped in, looking at everything in awe. "You did not make these! There's no way! Your dad probably made those or something."

"I did make those," The smug expression never left Lucas' face. "It's amazing how many things you can create with wood. Also, be careful and try not to bump anything. I would hate to kill you if anything happened to the race car I crafted last year. It took me months to build."

Then Matthew turned around and spotted the race car. It was a small race car that looked more like a child's wooden go-kart that an adult built than a child. Lucas explained the process he used to create the body of race car and how long it took to carefully carve the designs in the wood. The technical stuff was Greek to the young Matthew's mind; He did not understand a word of it.

Matthew quickly lost his concentration and looked around the garage some more. He quickly spotted a TV-looking thing sitting on a desk. He examined it like an alien spaceship, "What the hell is that?" Matthew asked, pointing towards the thing, "is that some kind of TV set or something?"

"It's an Apple Macintosh computer. I got it last year when they first came out." Lucas replied, "You never seen a computer before?"

"A computer? You mean those large things in the TV shows?" Matthew wondered if Lucas was trying to mess with him. There is no way that small thing could even be the same thing as the large machines in the science fiction movies. There was no way.

"Yeah," Lucas replied, "except the company who made my computer downsized the larger computers to fit in somebody's home."

"So can you communicate with Soviet soldiers and shot laser beams at people," Matthew asked eagerly, hovering around the computer, his curiosity of the computer growing.

"No! I can draw images on the computer and type words on it. That's pretty much it." Lucas replied, "What makes you think that I have any contact with the Soviet Union? Just because my babushka is Russian, that does not mean that I'm a Soviet spy or whatever."

"What a lame machine! I can't believe your dad spent money on that - Wait, you're Russian?" Matthew asked, "I honestly don't care if you are or not. What does ba-whatever mean anyway?"

Matthew noticed Lucas' face softened. Matthew even to this day had no idea why. Lucas gave a genuine smile and replied, "Well, thanks, I guess. Babushka? It's Russian for grandmother. I'm only part Russian. My father and grandfather are British and my mother was American."

"Where is your mom anyway? Is she out getting a new fur coat or something?" Matthew asked.

Lucas' smile faltered at the question, "She died when I was five from diabetic shock."

"Geez," Matthew rubbed the back of his own neck, uneasily, "Well, I think we should think of ideas for our next scam before your dad comes back being a jerk."

A/N: A bit of information on Lucas' family. Lucas' grandpa Malcolm Holmes lived in England and married a Russian immigrant named Olga. They had Lucas' father and moved to the US when Lucas' dad was a teenager. When Lucas' dad got older, he met Lucas' mother, an American woman who came from money and had Type 1 diabetes, when Lucas' dad was just starting climb the corporate ladder. They had Lucas and Lucas' mother died when Lucas was only five years old. Due to Lucas' dad being estranged from his deceased wife's family, Lucas never knew his mom's side of the family. Hope this helps clear things up some.


	4. Seth Lovering

Matthew received another card in the prison a couple of days later. This time, the card was from Seth. The message on the card was pretty generic and the only thing that came with the card was a free tattoo coupon from Seth's shop with the word "IOU" written on the back. "What a cheap bastard," Matthew snorted, tossing the card onto the desk in the room and sitting down on his bed.

To think this was how Seth was going to repay him back for all of the times he got Seth out of his house growing up. What is he supposed to do with the coupon anyway? Seth gets his wife pregnant and Matthew gets screwed out of a Christmas gift for some ankle-biter that has not even been born yet. Yeah, that sounds like a swell way to spend the holidays. There was no way he could get up and leave his cell to go to Seth's tattoo shop. Matthew wondered just how much Seth was going to do to prove that he is unlike his dad. Matthew had the misfortune of meeting said-man and seeing such how the man could be around Seth and Seth's mom.

Time was on Matthew's side the day that he made Lucas and Seth his pawns. He was able to convince Lucas to join him in just about the right amount of time for Matthew to get back to the school to follow Seth home. Of course, Lucas tagged along like a puppy following its master. Matthew knew Seth's routine from occasionally eavesdropping on Seth's conversations with the art teacher and knew that Seth often stayed afterschool in the art room for several hours at a time whatever reason. It was like the guy was afraid to go home or something.

Lucas and Matthew kept hidden behind one of the teacher's cars, waiting for Seth to come out to go home. Matthew quickly explained to Lucas that he must be quiet and follow his lead when Seth comes out. "We need Seth to join our group," Matthew added, "I can tell that he also has plenty of talent. Also, there would probably be some lifting involved in the scams and I'm not hurting myself trying to lift things. That ain't my job!"

"So you're going to follow Seth home?" Lucas asked.

Matthew hummed, "Pretty much. I need to watch him when he's at home to get to know him before I ask him. Also, I need to find out what's behind that damn mask of his. Just imagine what is behind that thing! I bet he has bad buck teeth or something."

"I had seen him without his mask once. His face seemed fine to me. Maybe it's something else?" Lucas asked, shrugging.

As soon as Seth came out, Matthew quietly shushed Lucas. Seth came out with a painted drawing of dark colored house. Seth was dragging his feet when it came to going home, which did not go unnoticed by Matthew. Seth was acting very strangely and Matthew wanted to get to the bottom of it. Matthew gestured at Lucas to carefully follow him.

To Matthew's surprise, Seth lived near him – in Park n' Flush nonetheless. Matthew had never been inside of the trailer park before. Seth lived in a red trailer that was sitting on cinderblocks. Park n' Flush was a dump. There was junk everywhere. If it was not for the trailers, Matthew would have assumed that Park n' Flush was a part of the garbage dump. The house Seth lived in was also quite turbulent. The sounds of an arguing couple can be heard from where Matthew and Lucas were hiding.

Lucas' sheltered upbringing made itself known through his reactions to the trailer park. Lucas looked at the trailer park, mortified, and refused to crouch down. Matthew groaned with annoyance. "What are you doing?"

"Trying not to touch anything," Lucas replied superciliously, "We're in the ghetto! There's garbage everywhere. It stinks! It probably has rats and cockroaches! I don't understand why the work - people would want to live here. Why can't they just earn more money or something? I mean, they're living in cheap RVs without wheels for crying out loud!"

"First of all, shut up!" Matthew groaned, feeling a headache coming along, "Second of all, those `cheap RVs' are trailers. Lastly, I've lived in the city and I know for a fact that this is not the ghetto; it's just a trailer park. Are you coming?"

"No, I'll stay here," Lucas looked around in disgust.

"Fine, just try not to get an angry mob after you while I go watch Seth," Matthew headed towards the trailer. Who knew that getting a spoiled rich kid to work for him was going to be such a pain in the ass? Matthew headed towards the noise. He knew that sound from his own parents fighting a couple of times when he was younger. The only difference is that he heard stuff being thrown and Seth's voice also joining the shouts.

Matthew peered inside of the trailer and what he saw could only be described as pure chaos. A weary brunette woman that Matthew later found out was Seth's mother had a black eye and was cowering in a corner from a man with a cheap whiskey bottle in his hand that Matthew later found out was Seth's father. Seth tugged on the man's leg, demanding that the man should not hit his mom.

The man sneered at him with contempt and kicked Seth's frail body into the wall. Seth's mother cried out in horror at seeing her son being abused. Seth lay limply against the wall, cradling his sore stomach. "What the hell is the matter with you, boy? Who the hell do you think you are? I am the man in the house, not you! If you were not such a fucking crybaby, I wouldn't have to hit you all the damn time. You think I like hitting you, huh?" Seth's father yelled, kicking Seth again. Seth's mother cried out again, begging the man to have mercy on their son. "Shut up, bitch!" Seth's dad yelled, throwing his whiskey bottle at Seth's mom, "Goddamn it! Look what you did, you worthless skank! You made me lose my fucking alcohol. It's more important to me than your worthless ass or your worthless spawn!"

"S-Seth is y-your child too," Seth's mom blubbered, crying into her hands.

"Yeah, one that you pushed onto me years ago that I didn't even fucking want in the first place!" Seth's dad argued back vehemently. "Now get my fucking alcohol! I really want to forget this entire fucking house." Seth's dad started rambling, his voice was getting stirred with each horrible word he uttered, "I especially want to forget your worthless ass, Seth's worthless ass and the worthless ass of that crazy damn brother of yours who lives in the bomb shelter out back. I don't even why you let your piece of shit brother, Roy, stay with us in the first place!"

"What about dinner tonight? Seth must be hungry after a long day. Please, Derrick! Please just forget about getting drunk tonight," Seth's mom pleaded, still cowering in the corner.

"Fuck no! The little bastard can starve for all I care!" Seth's dad growled menacingly.

Seth's parents continued to argue while Seth rushed into his room and locked the door behind him. Seth visibly shook as he heard his parents in the other room. Seth flopped onto his bed and sulked in the worn out blankets on his bed. Matthew watched from Seth's bedroom window in shock, he did not know how to react to Seth's situation or how to approach Seth, which was a first for him. He watched as Seth pulled the dried watercolor painting from earlier and hung it on his wall using tape.

Seth then removed his mask and then set it on his nightstand. Matthew was shocked to discover what was behind the mask. Every inch of the lower part of Seth's face was covered with bruises from his cheek down to his chin. Some of the bruises were fresh and some were starting to fade away. From the scene that happened in the kitchen/living room area, Matthew knew who had given Seth all of those bruises.

Seth did not seem to notice Matthew by the window. He buried his face into the pillow and screamed out his frustrations into it. He beat his fists into the pillow and sobbed, "Why does he do this? Every day is the same! I can't take it anymore. I can't! The only ones who will miss me when I'm gone are Ma and Uncle Roy. I hope they don't cry too much."

Matthew was confused about what Seth meant. He assumed that Seth was going to run away. However, that seemed to be not the case when Seth pulled out a handgun. Seth held the gun with an unsteady grip towards himself, heaving from the adrenaline rush. Seth cocked the hammer back and pointed the gun at his chest.

Matthew had seen enough. He quickly opened the window and climbed in. The eight year old quickly rushed towards Seth and slapped the gun out of his hand using the element of surprise to get the upper hand in the high-risk situation, "what are you doing? You idiot! You could have been shot!"

"You-" Seth's shocked expression quickly turned into a scowl, "what the heck are you doing looking through my window? Were you spying on me?"

"I was in the neighborhood and seen you playing with a gun," Matthew huffed, kicking the gun to the side into a deep drain in the middle of the room. At least he knew that the gun was long gone. "You could have hurt yourself!" Matthew shouted, "Are you an idiot?"

"What if I did want to hurt myself?" Seth asked grimly.

At the time, Matthew was confused about Seth's words. Matthew had no concept of the term suicide, let alone fully understood the concept of death. He even doubted that Seth even fully understood what he was doing at the time. All he knew at the time was that he needed to get Seth out of that house and calm him down. "Look, Lucas is at the edge of the trailer park. I can force his ass to get all three of us pizza or something."

"Why the hell would you go through that much trouble for me?" Seth asked, exasperated, "what's in it for you? Huh?"

"Hey, we're friends now and you're now my follower, so you listen to me now. Now, let's ditch this place and go get pizza," Matthew shrugged and added, "By the sound of it, your dad is going to spend grocery money on beer or whatever, so you don't have much choice but to come with me."

"Yeah, that's nothing new," Seth muttered bitterly, "Follower? What the heck? I never agreed to be your frickin' slave! What makes you think I want to agree to that?"

"Heh, let's put it this way; would you rather stay here where you would get beat up all night or would you rather sneak out of your house with me and Lucas and come back at bedtime?" Matthew smirked, knowingly. He approached the window and started to climb out, "Are you coming?"

"Wait a minute!" Seth stood there to ponder on Matthew's proposal. Matthew hopped out of the window. Matthew heard footsteps behind him and turned. Seth was rushing towards him with his mask crunched up in his hand, "I said wait up, you darn butthead!"

Matthew stopped, "So you'll help me with my scams and be my friend?"

"Yeah," Seth nodded, "I'll become your friend and follower. As a follower, I need to correct you on your scams. They stink! They make no sense. You need to make stuff that kids would actually want to buy and use. Not stupid stuff! You also sometimes have scams on days where kids are flat broke. Try the beginning and the end of the month when they get their allowances. Also, your spelling and artwork stinks as well! I can barely tell what is on your signs!"

"Everyone is a critic," Matthew huffed. He patted Seth on the back, "welcome to the team!"

They quickly ran into Lucas who was squatting away fireflies like a ninja from a movie. Matthew snickered at him and Seth remained silent. Matthew already had a metaphorical hook into Seth and it was one that Seth would not be able break even years after that night. Lucas' gaze quickly caught sight of the condition of Seth's face. Seth quickly put his mask back on, subconscious on how he looked without it.

"Oh Lucas! Seth has agreed to join us," Matthew announced. "To celebrate, you're buying us pizza!"

"Hey, wait a minute!" Lucas growled, "Why me?" The pizza that night tasted so good. Food always tasted better when Matthew got his way. He was able to convince most of the loser's table to help him with his schemes. He was getting something out of it and both Seth and Lucas got something out of it. He did not feel the least bit guilty in recruiting them.


	5. Eddy McGee

Matthew received another envelope the next day from the guards. This time it was from his brother, Eddy. The letter consisted of Eddy letting Matthew know how his life was going. Typical teenage stuff of getting detentions all of the time, barely passing all of his classes, and working at their dad's used car business.

Matthew noticed that Eddy intentionally left out any information on Edd. Matthew could read in between the lines to know what was going on. He knew that his brother moved in onto what was rightfully his. Despite his extreme jealousy, he decided to wait it out. He did not want to tempt his own brother to turn against him and do anything to spite him.

The day that Eddy was born taught him two lessons that day that change the way he viewed the world not unlike how that kind of information would change other children's perception once they learn the facts of life and about their own bodies.

Matthew remembered that he was not thrilled over his mom's pregnancy with Eddy. He never wanted his mom to give birth to Eddy. As a child, he had the unfounded paranoia of Eddy getting all of his toys and his parents' affections. His parents' preoccupation over Eddy's impending birth did not help his fear in the slightest. Once Matthew had expressed his dislike of his new baby brother to his father during his mother's pregnancy and even told his father that they should take Eddy back to "whatever Eddy came from." Angered by Matthew's words, his father spanked him and told him to grow up. After that incident, Matthew grew to resent his own father.

The day of Eddy's birth, Matthew's father had picked him up from school. Matthew's mother had started having contractions that morning before Matthew went to school and had to be dropped off at the hospital. He was driven to the hospital and was led straight into his mother's room. His mother's legs were spread before a female doctor, breathing heavily as she pushed, moaning loudly as pain coursed through her entire body. Her hair was sweaty and matted. "You two are just in time," Matthew's mother groaned, heaving as she pushed again under her doctor's instruction, "Little Eddy is just about to come out. Thank you for picking up Matthew, Carl," Matthew's mom replied, breathlessly, "I think seeing his brother born would make our little Matthew more at ease about becoming an older brother."

"It's no problem, Margaret." Carl replied.

"You named the little guy already?" The doctor asked. When Margaret answered affirmatively, the doctor continued, "That's a great name for him. Right now, Eddy is crowning. Relax, Margaret. You are doing just fine!"

"What does crowning mean?" Matthew asked, looking in the direction of the doctor. He saw a lot of blood coming out of his mother and a small bald head emerging out from between his mom's legs. Matthew felt dizzy and began to tremble at the sight. All three of the adults let out of a collective gasp of worry as he trembled. Carl quickly moved his elder son to one of the hospital chairs and instructed Matthew to relax.

Matthew sat as instructed and gathered his composure. A couple of pushes later, Eddy was born. The doctor quickly gave Eddy to Margaret and Margaret smiled warmly at Eddy. The motherly glow on her face made Matthew sick, "Welcome to the world, Eddy!"

"Congratulations, Eddy is a very healthy baby boy!" The doctor announced.

This is what a baby looks like when they are first born? Eddy was purple and pink when he was first born and was connected to the umbilical which looked like a twisted blue cord to Matthew. Eddy let out his first cries which hurt Matthew's ears. Margaret just cooed at her new son and cradled him in her arms, whispering loving words to Eddy. Eddy just fussed as Margaret continued to cradle him, beaming at the new baby, then at her elder son, and then at her husband.

Carl headed towards the doctor and was handed a scalpel by the doctor. Carl cut the umbilical cord that was connected to Eddy. He went towards his wife and newborn child and leaned towards them. He took Eddy from his wife's arms and held Eddy for a while. Eddy was starting to gain some color in him as the minutes gone by. Then Margaret brushed her hand against Carl's forearm and pointed towards Matthew. There was a silent agreement between them and Carl crouched down in front of Matthew with Eddy crying in his arms. "Matthew, this is your baby brother. You hold him under the back of his neck and under his butt."

Matthew reluctantly held his crying brother for a few seconds before giving his baby brother back to his dad, wordlessly. When he handed Eddy back to Carl, he noticed the same thing that he noticed when he spied on Sasha; He and Eddy's private areas look the same. He decided to ask his dad about that later on when he was not holding Eddy.

Carl handed Eddy to the doctor and she finished getting Eddy cleaned up. "Have you two decided on a middle name for Eddy?"

"It's Skipper," Carl answered, "Eddy Skipper McGee."

Carl quickly excused himself to go smoke a cigarette and took Matthew along with him while one of the nurses was checking Eddy's vitals. Matthew sat in the hospital's designated smoking area along with his dad and a couple of other people. The area smelted heavily of cigarette smoke. Carl took a long drag from his cigarette. The new father looked exhausted from tending to his delivering wife. Carl attempted to have a conversation with his son about his grades and school, but Matthew only gave him one-worded answers. He did not want to tell his dad about getting bullied and making new friends within the loser's table.

"Dad?" Matthew asked.

"Yes, Matthew?" Carl asked, taking another drag from his cigarette.

"Back there, why was Eddy's and my below things the same?" Matthew asked, curiously.

"Below things? You mean the thing you pee out of, right?" Carl asked, awkwardly. Matthew nodded, worried yet anxious about his dad's response to the question. Carl rubbed the back of his own neck with the cigarette still lit between his lips. "Christ, I knew this question would pop up sooner or later. Matthew, that thing means that you're both boys. When people are born, they are born with a particular thing that they pee out of, so that the doctor would know whether a baby is a boy or a girl. When you grow up, you'll become a man and still have that thing between your legs."

Matthew knew that his dad was uncomfortable, but pressed on, "So every boy and man's things looks the same?"

"Yes, Matthew," Carl groaned, "Each man and boy has that particular thing."

The next question came out of Matthew's lips. "So what kind of things do girls have?"

Carl sputtered and coughed, almost dropping his cigarette, "Wait until you're older to ask that question, Matthew!"

Eddy was taken home a few days later. Matthew had to stay with his grandpa until his parents got back home with Eddy. Once Carl picked him up and brought him home, he realized that having a new baby brother was not about the giggling babies and contentment that the Johnson & Johnson commercials had him believe. Eddy had been screaming his head off every few hours only granting Matthew relief in between fits to snooze.

With Eddy being colicky, Carl and Margaret worked tirelessly to try to soothe Eddy by giving into the baby's high-pitched wordless demands, ignoring Matthew for the most part unless it was mealtime. Matthew could hear his new baby brother all the way from his room. Neither watching cartoons nor playing with his toys offered Matthew any relief from Eddy's constant cries. He did not understand why his parents wanted such an annoying pest in the first place.

Bedtime came and Matthew thought he was finally going to get some peace for the night. Eddy was snoozing yet again and his parents had fallen asleep. Matthew was awoken with a start when he heard his brother's cries once again. He groaned and glanced at the clock, it was midnight. Matthew tried to cover his ears with a pillow, but Eddy's cries kept him up. His parents were still passed out asleep from a long tiring day.

Matthew finally had enough of the baby's screams and stomped towards Eddy's room downstairs. The baby had not even been home a day and it was already getting on Matthew's every last nerve. The room that became Eddy's nursery had a disco ball that had been there before they had moved in. Eddy lay inside of his crib, fussing loudly with his mouth wide open.

Matthew stomped over to the crib and slapped the side of the crib, "Shut up! I'm trying to sleep!" Eddy's cries only increased in volume. Matthew yelled out, hitting the crib repeatedly, trying to drown out Eddy's cries, "Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up! Shut up!"

Eddy would not stop crying and Matthew was quickly losing his temper. He grabbed Eddy out of the crib and spanked Eddy hard. This only caused Eddy to cry even louder than before. "Go to sleep!" Matthew demanded, throwing the baby blanket over Eddy's head. That incident would not be the last night that Matthew physically abused his younger brother.

Matthew was frantic. Eddy would not stop crying. Matthew paced around the room. He was so tired and irritated. He just wanted some sleep. He had school tomorrow and he would not be able to scam his classmates with Seth and Lucas if he was tired. He was a child, himself. He should not being tending to a screaming baby on a school night. Life was not fair!

After having enough of Eddy's screams, Matthew tried a different approach to getting Eddy to quiet down. He got Eddy out of his crib again and rocked the baby like their mother had done. He began to sing the parts of a song he remembered his mom playing on a record, "Jolene, please don't take my man. Jolene, please don't take him just because you can. Your beauty is beyond compare with flaming locks of auburn hair and I cannot compete with you, Jolene!"

Eddy began to quiet down, the longer that Matthew repeated those lyrics droning on, tiredly, hoping that Eddy would go to sleep. Eddy yawned and stared at his older brother. Matthew kept repeating the song to Eddy to lull Eddy into a peaceful slumber. Eddy finally closed his little eyes and fell asleep within his older brother's arms.

"You finally decided to go to sleep, you annoying little pipsqueak!" Matthew spoke quietly to the sleeping infant. He walked over to the rocking chair with Eddy in his arms and flopped down on the rocking chair, tired. He rocked in the chair, starting to dose off into a finally peaceful sleep. His last thought before succumbing to sleep was that Eddy was more trouble than he was worth.

There were plenty of nights where Matthew had to rock his own brother to sleep, especially when their dad worked late and Margaret slept like a rock after a long day of trying to balance out being a mother to Matthew, being a mother to Eddy, getting chores done, and getting dinner done before Carl came home. He envied both Lucas and Seth for being only children. They did not have to deal with a screaming baby brother at home. He complained about it to Seth and Lucas, but they snickered at him and told him that it sucked to be him. Once Lucas even joked that Matthew should give his brother to the Goblin King, but Matthew did not understand the joke at the time.

A/N: The song obviously does not belong to me. It belongs to Dolly Parton.


	6. Running Away

Seth and Lucas surprised Matthew when they entered into the prison discreetly. Matthew watched as Lucas bribed a couple of crooked guards to look the other direction. He supposed that five thousand dollars each would be enough to bribe any guard willing to go against the rules. To Lucas, five thousand dollars was just pocket change. Seth brought in a black duffel bag with him into the cell.

Matthew observed the duffel bag attentively. Seth noticed his curiosity and grinned, opening up the duffel bag. The tools of Seth's trade were in the duffel bag; Tattoo guns, ink, binders, disinfectant, fresh needles still in their packages, and gloves. Seth then handed Matthew the binder and instructed him to pick his first tattoo. Suddenly the IOUs and the tattoo coupon made sense. Seth could always point out prison tattoos, homemade tattoos that were done by an amateur, and other kinds of tattoos. To Seth, tattooing was a work of art and one where he would not accept anything else than perfection, especially when it came to tattooing a friend.

After giving it much thought, Matthew decided on a tattoo of a King Cobra, one of the most feared snakes on the planet. A single bite from a king cobra is enough to kill 20 people. They are such beautiful and deadly creatures. Getting a tattoo of one would be pretty rad. Seth decided on the location of the tattoo and placed a mouth guard in Matthew's mouth. As Seth explained to him, the mouthpiece is to prevent Matthew's teeth from grinding against each other during the entire process. Seth went on to rub alcohol wipes on Matthew's bicep, explaining he would do the tattoo outline for Christmas and color it in for Matthew's birthday. Seems fair enough.

Matthew always had the pleasure of seeing Seth hard at work – especially with their scams. What surprised Matthew about the way Seth and his tattoo artist business was how professional Seth was at his tattoo shop. Seth had the professionalism of a doctor and the creativity of a world famous artist when he was behind a tattoo gun. The human skin was his canvas and the tattoo gun was his paintbrush.

Seth and Lucas obviously worked together to get him this Christmas gift. As Seth got to work on Matthew's new tattoo, Matthew hissed internally as he tried to stay still as Seth started tattooing the area below Matthew's shoulder. He was not even sure how Seth could have so many tattoos. The guy must be a masochist or something. Lucas sat back and observed Matthew's reactions with morbid curiosity. So Matthew hated needles, it was not like Lucas can use it to get the upper-hand in a fight against him. He still can wipe the floor with Lucas in a heartbeat.

`Everybody has fears, it's how you respond to it,' As Roy would tell him with a slight drawl. Matthew thought back to the time that Lucas, Seth, and he had ran away from their homes. That was also the time he had met Roy for the first time, the wisest guy that Matthew had ever met in his life. Matthew considered him a real American hero.

It started when all three boys discussed their family troubles with one another at the age of nine. Matthew's parents were overworked, Seth's dad still physically abused him, Seth's mom still cowered at the sound of her husband's voice, and Lucas' dad still treated Lucas like a parasite rather than a son. The three boys hatched a plan at lunch over what they were going to do about their situation. They decided that they were better off supporting each other. Essentially they were planning on running away from their homes.

Lucas stole over a thousand dollars from his dad, Seth took a couple of his uncle's hunting rifles, and Matthew took his dad's camping and fishing supplies. Lucas carried five bags of clothes, his diabetic supplies, and toiletries. Matthew just brought clothes, a lighter, and a pocket knife. Seth brought his clothes and art supplies.

"Tell me again why we are camping and not going to a hotel?" Lucas groaned, struggling to carry all of the four duffel bags and suitcase he brought with.

"`Cause you idiot, three kids with a lot of stuff would look way too weird and they would call our parents!" Matthew explained. "Did you pack only the stuff you needed?"

"Yes!" Lucas retorted indignantly, "I got the stuff I need to survive in this darn wilderness. You guys are going to thank me later."

Seth carried his backpack on his back and the groceries on each of his arms. Matthew also carried a case of soda for them. They had stopped by a gas station before they ventured out into the sea of trees. "Good thing I brought Uncle Roy's hunting rifles. If we need to, we can go hunting and eat what we need to in order to survive. If we're lucky, we can shoot a deer that would give us meat for about a week. Deer meat is actually pretty good. Heck, frog legs do not taste any different than chicken and there's plenty of frogs near the river."

"Frog meat? People actually eat that?" Lucas scrunched up his nose in disgust.

"Lucas you ate fish eggs and raw fish a few times with your dad," Matthew stated.

"That was different! It was caviar and sushi." Lucas replied, "You know what, never mind! How long is it going to take before we reach one of the clearings?"

"It's not too far away," Seth replied, "trust me, I've been here before. There's a lake near the area that we can fish in. You can find wild turkeys, wild pigs, and rabbits if we run out of snacks. We need to limit getting stuff from the store in case the adults there find out."

"We're living like criminals? Ah, c'mon! Does either of you two even know how to cook a fish or a deer?" Lucas complained.

"We spent over fifty dollars on stuff from the gas station. If we go back so soon, they will find out that we ran away." Seth explained. "How hard could it be to cook those? I've made myself meals before." Seth continued walking until he reached his destination. The clearing was a bald patch in the middle of the woods near a lake. "We're here. We might need to first roll one of the logs to use as a sofa."

"Well, quit wasting time and go find one," Matthew ordered, "I'll stay here and watch the stuff."

"Of course," Seth rolled his eyes, setting his stuff down, "I also took a few of my uncle's magazines when he was not looking. We're in the woods, so we're going to need some entertainment from getting too bored."

"What kind of magazines are they?" Matthew asked; his curious peaked at the magazine's contents, "are they car magazines?"

"Are they the latest issue of Woodworking Quarterly?" Lucas asked, just as curious as Matthew was.

"No, they're magazines with women on it!" Seth replied.

"I've already seen those fashion and hair magazines. They're boring! My mom collects them," Matthew complained.

"I bet they're not magazines with naked women," Seth retorted.

"What?" Matthew started grabbing at Seth's bags, "Let me see that!"

"Hey, hold on a second!" Seth jumped, quickly shrugging off his bags, "I'll get them. Geez, are naked magazines really that big of a deal?"

"That big of a deal? I haven't even seen a woman naked before, except for the time I walked in on my parents changing." Matthew exclaimed and then turned to Lucas, "have you ever seen a naked woman before?"

"Nope," Lucas shook his head.

"Alright, here!" Seth reached into his bag and handed Matthew the magazine, "Lucas and I will be right back with the log. Hopefully you got a fire going by then."

"Ah, I wanted to see the magazine too!" Lucas complained, reluctantly trailing behind Seth.

It was pretty easy finding sticks in the forest. It was like finding hay in a haystack. With the wood problem gone, Matthew could spend more time alone with the magazine. He sat on the hard ground and carefully opened the magazine like an individual would open up a book containing all of the universe's secrets. Matthew gulped and turned to a random page. He reached into one of the bags with his free hand and got out some beef jerky. He opened it and took a bit out of it.

On the page contained a blonde woman spread-eagle, showing her glistening pink meaty slit to the camera. He understood then what his dad meant about girls and women having a different part below their legs. Matthew face turned crimson at the image. Matthew was attracted to the woman on the magazine, but it was not a sexual attraction. It was more like seeing a splendid painting. His blush turned even brighter when he realized that he looked at the woman the same way that he looked at Sasha. He wondered if there was something abnormal about him. Why would he look at Sasha the same way as he looked at a random woman on a magazine?

If someone knew about his thoughts from that day, Matthew would shrug it off and declare that day was when he first started to open his eyes to what he wanted in life. He wanted to fuck indiscriminately as long he could become erect at the sight of the person. He struggled with his bisexuality for years until he gave up and accepted that he wanted to fuck guys as much as he wanted to fuck women. He later asked Seth several years after the incident on why he brought Roy's magazines when they went camping. Seth only shrugged and disclosed the true reason that he brought the magazines; Seth brought them to impress him and Lucas.

He breathed in the clean, crisp air and started to relax as he set the magazine down. The forest was quite calming and enchanting. In the forest, he can escape his responsibilities as an older brother and an elementary school student. He did not have to worry about screaming babies, obnoxious classmates, or homework. He can just be himself within the sea of trees and with Seth and Lucas. This was the life for him!

Lucas and Seth came back, rolling a large log to their campsite near the stick pile. Seth and Lucas were heaving over having to push that log. "Nice job, guys," Matthew clapped and hooted, "Doesn't freedom smell great?"

"Yeah, until the bugs start biting," Lucas muttered.

"If you want to leave and go back to that jerk dad of yours, be my guest!" Matthew snapped. Lucas lowered his head in defeat and did not say another word. Matthew turned towards Seth, "That magazine of yours is really something. I didn't know what a girl's down there looked like before I peeked at the magazine."

"You don't know what a lady's pussy looks like?" Seth asked, "didn't you watch that brother of yours being born?"

"Yeah, I remember that my little brother came out of – oh!" It dawned on him of where exactly his little brother came out of. "I wonder how my little brother even got in my mom's belly. I think he might have been some kind of growth that happened when my mom was asleep one night."

"Maybe your mother ate something bad and got your little brother." Lucas pondered, "You know, like a tapeworm."

"Both of you two are wrong!" Seth declared, "Babies come from sex!"

"What is sex?" Matthew asked. That small word was completely foreign to the nine year old. He had never heard his parents mention the word. He had never even heard anyone else mention it to him. He wondered if Seth was telling him the truth. He was not the only one that was surprised; Lucas was silently taking all of the information with curious wonder.

"You know that thing guys have between their legs?" Seth questioned them like a teacher asking questions in class.

"Yeah! My down there! I heard that all guys have them!" Matthew blurted. He at least knew that part.

"Well, that part is called a dick," Seth informed them, knowing more on the subject than most nine year olds did, "It starts when a man and woman act more lovey-dovey to each other than they usually do. The man and woman find a quiet place and lock the door. The man puts his dick inside of a woman's pussy and squirts baby gravy in her pussy that creates a baby. They wait months after the man squirts his baby gravy and a baby is born. That's how I was made and how you two and everyone else in this world was made, including Matthew's little brother."

Squeals of disgust resonated throughout the campsite from everyone except for Seth. "That is disgusting!" Matthew complained, "I don't want to think of my parents doing that!" Sad part was he recalled his parents acting more lovey-dovey towards each other. It was months before his brother was born. They would gaze into each other's eyes more than usual at the dinner table and were giggling at each other like love struck schoolgirls. They would also spoil Matthew with movie rentals and new toys, so that they could disappear in their bedroom for an hour at a time. It seemed like Seth was telling him the truth. "Is that sex-thing mentioned in that magazine too?"

Seth nodded and grabbed the magazine and flipped to a random page where a guy had his shaft halfway inside of a woman.

"That's not as bad as imagining my parents doing that," was Matthew's quick response. The guy in the photo looked like he really enjoyed the act and Matthew wondered if he too would enjoy the act when he gets older. "Is it possible for two guys to want to do the sex-thing together?"

"Yeah, my dad calls it being queer and considers it strange," Seth shrugged, emotionlessly.

"How do know so much about sex and queers?" Lucas finally spoke.

"My dad," Seth replied, monotonously, which sent a shiver down Matthew's spine of just how much emotions Seth bottled up, "My dad told me that the only reason I exist is because he wanted some easy sex and my mom couldn't keep her legs closed. He said that he would not have done that a second time if he knew mom would have gotten pregnant." Seth inhaled sharply, "As for the queer part, dad bought a dress from some yard sale and told me he would put it on me if I didn't stop acting like such a queer. He said that queers act like sissies and kiss other guys like women and stick their dicks into each other's butts."

Matthew stayed quiet. All of that information was a lot to take in. Besides all of the information on sexual intercourse and homosexuality, Matthew found out more on how horrible Seth's father was. Matthew's dad never told him that he was an unwanted child. The only thing Matthew's dad ever told him was his behavior sometimes was uncalled for. The gust of what Carl said to his own son was that he was disappointed in his elder son, but still loved him and wanted him to remain a part of the family. Despite that, Matthew still despised his father with every part of his being. The day already seemed like it was going to be a long, hard one.


	7. Friends

Lucas and Seth discussed the forest incident while Matthew clenched his teeth, trying not to let out a scream. They both chuckled at remembering the porn magazines. Seth chuckled at the fact that he had to explain the birds and the bees to his two best friends and Lucas laughed at how incredibly naïve he was at the time. "To think that I had to tell the biggest pervert I know today about what happens when two people get in between the sheets, about baby-making, and about gay people. What a world!" Seth joked. They all knew he was referring to Matthew. Matthew took a swing at Seth which Seth ducked, tattoo gun still in hand, "Easy there, Rocky Balboa! I'm still working on your tattoo. Chill out, I was only joking."

"Just get my tattoo done," Matthew grunted as the tattoo needle made contact with his flesh once more. How long does it take to get one tattoo done?

"I don't know why you're so pissy," Lucas snorted, "You've slept with more people than Seth and I put together."

"That's because you still haven't got any yet," Matthew retorted icily, "The only chicks Seth's ever fucked was his wife, that one punk chick he was seeing for two years, and that chick he fucked at that party when he was high on cocaine."

"Well, not all of us are content with sleeping with over twenty damn people," Seth replied neutrally.

If Matthew remembered correctly, things have not changed between the three of them since they were children, despite the fact that the time they had ran away from home was supposedly what brought them closer together than they were before. Despite the early Sex-Ed lesson, the rest of the time they spent camping when they were nine years old was rather ingenuous and carefree. For once, they were allowed to be young boys without the constant restraints that their parents put on them. It was just three nine year old boys in a vast forest – free to do whatever they desired.

"You remember when I drew a butt on Sasha's face with a Sharpie when he fell asleep in class? I never thought he would stop crying over that!" Matthew laughed hysterically, shoveling Doritos into his mouth between laughing fits. Lucas was laughing just as boisterously as Matthew was and Seth was chuckling quietly.

"He was called buttface for almost a week!" Lucas chortled, flashing his pearly white teeth, giggling at the juvenile prank.

Seth snorted, "Hey, what happened to Sasha? He used to be so cool, but now he's not. He's always trying to get us in trouble with the teachers and principal now and even tries to ruin our scams. I mean, he's got a thing against us or something."

"Who cares?" Lucas hissed, "Sasha is a brown-nosing, goodie two-shoed butthole anyway!" Lucas lifted up his arm and sniffed it, "Yuck! I smell like a pig! Where is the shower? I need to wash some of this sweat off."

Matthew pointed to the river, "Go ahead and take a bath. Seth and I won't look."

"If you expect me to wash myself like some kind of animal, you're crazy!" Lucas spat, tilting his nose in the air.

Matthew looked at Seth and winked subtly at Seth. Seth returned the look with smirk, knowingly. They both grinned mischievously causing Lucas to worry, "What are you looking at, you buttheads!"

Matthew and Seth rushed over to Lucas. Matthew picked up Lucas from behind, holding Lucas' sides like someone performing the Heinrich maneuver. "Quick Seth!" Matthew yelled out, laughing, "Grab his legs! Lucas is as heavy as a twig!"

Lucas thrashed around in Matthew's arms like a fussy baby. "Let me go! Let go, you jackass!" Seth tried to grab a hold of Lucas' feet, but Lucas kicked at Seth wildly. Seth was able to grab the struggling boy's feet. "C'mon guys! This is not funny!"

Matthew and Seth carried him to the river. Seth took off Lucas' socks and shoes before they started moving. Lucas continued to flail around, trying to break the grip his friends had on him. They suddenly stopped next to the river which caused Lucas to freak out, "Don't you dare! Don't even thinking about doing it!"

"Ready?" Matthew asked Seth. When Seth nodded, Matthew started counting. Both of the kids were swinging Lucas back and forth, "One, two, three!" Both Seth and Matthew let go of Lucas and watched as Lucas landed in the murky green water with a large splash as his body hit the water.

A few seconds later, Lucas' head peered out of the water, seething. "Assholes! Assholes! Assholes!" Lucas screamed as he splashed at his friends angrily as his friends started cackling at him like hyenas. "It's not funny!" Lucas pulled off his shirt and chucked it at Seth. The shirt landed on Seth's lower pant leg when Seth tried to dodge the incoming shirt. Lucas then removed his jeans and tossed at Matthew who was laughing at Seth, hitting the left side of Matthew's waist.

"Hey, you shithead!" Matthew yelled, "I'll kick your ass!"

Lucas pointed at him, "You said a couple of bad words!"

"So what, you said one a minute ago," Matthew pointed out, "Adults can't hear us, so what's the harm? As long as neither of us tattletale of each other, everything would be peachy."

Lucas just nodded and begun washing himself in the river water, using his hand to lather up his body with water. Lucas was still in his underwear. Seth yawned, exhausted from the long hike into the campsite. He turned to Matthew, "So I guess we are going to be living free with no rules?"

"Pretty much," Matthew nodded, "We can do what we want, eat what we want, say what we want, and sleep when we want without our asshole parents. Like Lucas can have sweets with us without his dad breathing down his neck."

"What about the diabetes thing?" Seth asked, "I'm pretty sure he still can't have sugar even if our parents aren't around."

"Do you even know what diabetes is?" Matthew asked.

Seth shrugged, "No, I have no idea what it is. Just that Lucas can't eat sugar or noodles."

"Doesn't that sound like something parents would say just to bug us?" Matthew asked, "Just like the Santa Claus thing, his dad is probably just saying that to prevent Lucas from getting the good food like cookies, candy bars, and snack cakes."

"There are commercials about diabetes," Seth argued.

"There are commercials on Santa Claus too," Matthew countered, "Adults do a damn good at trying to scare us into behaving. Why don't we see what happens when Lucas has sugar." Seth was about to protest, but Matthew quickly hushed him, "what happens when you eat nuts?"

"I break out in hives and have trouble breathing," Seth answered, unsure of where Matthew was getting at with the question.

"-And I vomit whenever I eat milk or cheese." Matthew added. "Has Lucas ever mentioned what happens when he eats sugar?"

"No," Seth replied, "His dad watches what he eats like a hawk and Lucas never ate any of that stuff for as long as I known him."

"Then it's fake," Matthew concluded, "-and I'm about to proof it once Lucas gets out of the river."

Once Lucas finished bathing, Matthew approached him with a Hershey bar in hand, "hey, Lucas. You want one?"

"No thanks," Lucas replied, sitting on the log near the to-be fire to dry off, "you know I can't have sugar."

Matthew questioned him, "Has your dad even told you what happens when you eat sugar?"

"Not really," Lucas replied, "Except for the reason that I heal slowly is due to the diabetes. He told me that my mom had diabetes like I do and she died from a diabetic shock when I was five. I barely remember her."

"No use wondering what would happen unless you try it," Matthew persisted, much to Seth's dismay, "Am I right?"

Seth watched with bated breath as Lucas was given the chocolate bar. Neither Seth nor Matthew knew what's going to happen. There was a chance that Matthew could be right about the whole diabetic thing. Chocolate was a forbidden fruit to Lucas and now the boy was eating the candy without a second thought. What are friends for!

Needless to say, Lucas enjoyed the candy bar like an exquisite dinner – and the candy bar after that – and the candy bar after that. Matthew lost count on how many candy bars Lucas consumed by the time nightfall came around. Lucas took a long nap after eating a bunch of chocolate. Afterward, the boy woke up to gulp down a bunch of the drinks they had brought with them. Lucas also went behind the bush to pee every half hour or so. Matthew snorted; it served Lucas right for drinking up the soda they had brought.

After a while, Matthew got the fire going with lighter fluid and a match. Seth and Lucas also set the tent up and set up their sleeping pallets. The boys huddled near the fire for warmth from the night air. The warm orange glow created some light within the dark campsite. The smell of smoke clung to Matthew's body to the point where he smelled just like the smoke coming off of the fire.

"I think it's a perfect night to tell scary stories," Matthew announced, munching on potato chips.

Seth nodded, "I agree. It's dark and kind of spooky in the woods at night."

"I've seen scary stories on TV," Lucas announced, "I wonder if the stories you two tell are better than the ones on TV."

"Just watch us and you will get the hang of it," Seth replied, "there's actually been something quite strange within Peach Creek that has me wondering. There's a specific house in Peach Creek that my mom told me to stay away from. It's a grey house off of Main Street. My mom told me that a bad person lives there."

"A house? Yeah right!" Matthew scoffed, "Who's afraid of some stupid house if it ain't haunted! I could think of a better scary scenario in my sleep!"

"It's true!" Lucas chimed in, "It's a dark grey house on Blood Point. The address is 13 Blood Point. The person who lives there drives an old white van with tinted windows. Nobody has seen the man that lives there though. My dad told me to stay away from that house as well. Why do you think our parents tell us to say away from him?"

Seth grinned mischievously, "I heard the man is an evil toymaker who makes children into dolls. He would snatch up the children who wander around his yard. Once they are inside of his house, he begins to cut children open like a deer to get all of their blood and guts out. After that, he sews the children back up to add to his collection."

Lucas screamed in terror, but Matthew sat there unamused by the story. "You call that a scary story?" Matthew asked, haughtily, "Let me show you how it's done!" If Matthew could not beat them, he would join them. "The man's mom and dad probably were Bloody Mary and the Booeyman! The man was so ugly when he was born that the doctor attempted to make him less ugly by carving his face from ear to ear. After he grew up, he became a deranged clown who hated kids for having normal faces," Matthew stopped for a moment and noticed Seth gulping and waiting with anticipation of what was going to happen next. Lucas was already fidgeting, waiting for Matthew to continue.

Matthew grinned and continued, "Anyway, if you go near that house, the man would drag you inside by your feet. Once you're in, he would want to play his favorite game called `Stitches.' It's where he cuts you from ear to ear, giving you the same look he has. He would also cut your arms straight across and your legs too. While you are dying in a pool of your own blood, he would stitch you back up to torture you some more. He would continue to play Stitches until all of your blood is drained out, which he would use to put in his coffee." Matthew added with a near whisper, "They say that he also walks around the woods at night looking for children who are camping out in the woods." Matthew eyes went wide and he pointed towards the woods, "Oh my God! Guys, we need to get out now! He's watching us right now!"

"What?" Lucas and Seth both screamed as they panicked and stumbled over each other to get away from whatever was in the forest. When they turned around, they saw nothing in the direction that Matthew was pointing. Matthew laughed as hard as he could. He got those two good! He tried to stop himself from laughing so hard, but couldn't hold it in.

Lucas and Seth both scowled at him. "That wasn't funny, you jackass!" Seth complained, "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

After the fire went out, they went into the tent to rest for the night. Matthew was the only one who found it hard to sleep. It was not clowns with Glasgow smiles or evil toymakers that kept him up. Oh no, it was his friends that kept him up. Lucas was holding a stuffed mouse and dug his feet into the small of Matthew's back while he slept. On the other side of him was Seth tossing and turning in his sleep and sucking his thumb. It was going to be a long, sleepless night for him.


	8. Roy Lovering

Seth was almost done with the tattoo; the outline for the snake tattoo was already stunning. While working on Matthew's tattoo, Seth asked the same question that he had been asking for about eleven years or so: He asked if he could have his uncle's hat back. Matthew scoffed at the nerve of Seth to ask such a preposterous question.

"You can have the hat back if I stab you in the jugular vein with that tattoo gun you're holding," Matthew snarled, venomously.

Seth flinched and continued to work on the tattoo, wordlessly. Matthew honestly did not know why Seth wanted the hat. Seth had possession of his uncle's dog tags from Vietnam and Roy's Purple Heart medal. Matthew would kill Seth before Seth takes the hat away from him.

He recounted the first time he met Seth's uncle Roy. It was on the third and final day that Seth, Lucas, and he had ran away from home. Lucas was still consuming a lot of fluids and using the bathroom more frequently than usual. Their days in the woods were pretty typical. They would consume their weight in junk food, gather up sticks for the fire, and play in the river.

Between a few of Lucas' frequent nap breaks, Lucas would force Seth and Matthew to take lessons on what Matthew at the time referred to "adult words." Basically, Lucas was trying to teach Matthew and Seth to learn how to speak past a grade school level. Since they were out on their own, living as pseudo-adults, they needed to learn how to pronounce and understand certain words – or that was the plan anyway. Equipped with one of his dad's thesauruses, Lucas attempted to teach them, despite the jeers that he received from his fellow campmates.

Matthew was poking Lucas with a stick while he was attempting to teach them synonyms for the word large while Seth was gathering kindle for the night. Lucas swiped at the stick was one hand and tried to continue the lesson. Matthew cackled and kept doing it. "Stop it, you annoying buttface! I'm attempting to teach you and you're being a nuance!" Lucas squealed and shielded himself with the thesaurus.

"-But you're boring me to death! The lesson is so tedious." Matthew complained, smirking at Lucas.

"At least you're learning new words from it," Lucas retorted, shaking his tiny fists in the air.

Matthew swung the stick like a sword and hit Lucas in the leg. Lucas yelped and ran away from the stick, occasionally getting whacked in the backside. Matthew laughed like a jester and chased Lucas around the campsite with the stick in hand. Lucas slowed down after a while and yawned and then stopped. Matthew slowed down to a complete stop and sighed, "Geez, you're tired again? What the heck is wrong with you?"

Lucas shrugged weakly, "I don't know. I never had been this sleepy before." Matthew nodded wordlessly, not knowing what the heck was wrong with Lucas. Seth dropped the pile of sticks and rushed over to them. Lucas looked from Seth to Matthew and rubbing his own arm nervously. He then went to one of the bags he brought and took out a small plastic instrument with a needle sticking out. He cocked back a button on the plastic object and pressed the needle to his finger. Seth and Matthew watched with morbid curiosity as Lucas pressed the button which caused the plastic thing to prick Lucas' finger like the spindle that pricked Sleeping Beauty.

A small amount of blood formed from the small puncture. Lucas quickly grabbed a small pocket-sized machine and a medical strip and put the plastic poker back, careful to not lose the drop of blood on his face. Lucas quickly slid the medical strip into the machine and waited for the machine to beep quietly. Lucas gently pressed the medical strip to his finger and the strip sucked out the tiny bit of blood like a mechanical vampire.

Lucas waited a few seconds for the machine to beep again. When it did, Lucas examined the reading pensively. Matthew noticed that Lucas' face paled when he read the reading. He dropped the machine onto the ground and curled into a ball. His reading was 250. Seth finally spoke up, "What's wrong, Lucas?"

"My reading," Lucas bawled, "It's twice than it normally should be! That's never happened to me before."

"I'm sure you're fine, so quit being a baby," Matthew scolded. Lucas seemed fine to him, despite the exhaustion, frequent urination, and thirst that Lucas had displayed during the last few days. However he did not have time to react, because he heard a deep masculine voice calling out in the distance. What the voice said was indistinguishable, but it had gotten the attention of the boys.

"What the hell was that?" Matthew asked. Lucas shrugged his shoulders and Seth paid close attention to the voice.

The voice got louder and clearer as minutes went by. They eventually heard what the voice was saying, "Seth! Boy! Where in the hell are you, boy? Did Charlie find you? I'll blast their asses with my rifle if they laid one hand on you. Yes sir, I will!"

"Uncle Roy?" Seth called out.

Matthew groaned, "Thanks a lot, Seth! We're so fucking busted." He did not look forward to going back home to get grounded from his father. He would not have run away from home if his parents did not ignore him for Eddy. So much for the ideal of living the rest of his life in the wilderness, free from parental control!

"It's better than having him shooting at you two blindly, thinking that you're Charlie," Seth hissed in a stage whisper and then added softly. "The war messed his head up pretty badly."

"Who's Charlie?" Lucas asked, curiously.

"He was in a war? That's awesome!" Matthew exclaimed, enthusiastically, "I bet he got to shoot lots of things and kicked the butts of anything that stood in his way! I bet he's like a real life GI Joe or something like that." He had not met Seth's Uncle Roy yet, but Matthew was already eager to meet the man.

"Seth?" Roy called out, "who's there with you?"

"Shut up, guys!" Seth hushed and raised his voice in a near yell to answer his uncle, "It's just my friends, Uncle Roy."

"Your mom and I have been looking for you for three days. A couple named Carl and Margaret are also looking for their son as well. A diabetic kid went missing too. Last I heard." Roy replied, "Why the hell are you and your friends in these woods by yourselves, anyway?"

"We went camping, Uncle Roy," Seth lied, "We wanted to go camping together where it was just the three of us."

"Well, you and your friends should've told someone where you were," Roy replied, entering their campground, "Somethin' could've happened to you and I wouldn't even know where to look for your scrawny hide."

That was the first time Matthew ever seen Roy in person. The man looked to be about his parent's age, maybe a little older. The man had to have been in his early thirties, judging by the man's looks. Matthew later found out that the man was thirty three when he had first met him. The man was pretty tall, even taller than Seth and Matthew were when they had grown up years later. His face was worn and weary and though his eyes seem to match that of the stereotypical mentally ill individual, Roy's eyes also have a kind of warmth to them. The man's hair had the same dark brown hue as Seth's, but the man's hair reached the back of his neck and was kind of greasy.

The man's outfit was also pretty interesting to the nine year old. Roy wore a white tee shirt with torn sleeves, hunter's camouflage pants, and hiking boots. The man also wore a dark brown flat cap on the top of his head and dog tags around his neck. The man was also carrying a hunting rifle in the holster on his back.

"I'm fine, Uncle Roy," Seth huffed.

"Well, get your stuff and hurry up. I left the truck running so I would not have to go through hell and back just to get the piece of shit running again. You know as well as I do, that damn thing makes a better two ton lawn ornament than it does a truck." Roy took a swig of clear, alcohol smelling liquid in a jar. "If you're not in the old parking lot in ten minutes, you know that I'll just track you down again like an old hunting dog. You know your way through these woods. I taught you the layout of this dang place plenty of times."

"Yes, sir," Seth replied meekly. Seth waited until his uncle was out of earshot to apologize, "I'm sorry about my uncle, guys. He can be a bit-"

"Awesome," Matthew exclaimed as starry-eyed as a kid who first visited Disney World.

"Yeah," Seth gave a small unsure smile and started gathering their belongings. It was pleasant to see Seth's face not as covered with bruises as it usually was. It made Seth look quite normal for once in the year that Matthew had known him.

Once they got all of their stuff picked up, Seth led them towards the parking lot. An old brown truck that was covered in rust stood in the middle of the parking lot with Roy sipping on more of the clear liquid in the jar. The truck looked like it was ready for a place in the junkyard, but by some miracle, it still was able to run.

"Get out of the way," Matthew pushed past his friends, "I get to sit with the war hero!" Lucas and Seth almost stumbled and Matthew gave them a look, silently telling them to hurry up as he loaded the back of the truck with his stuff.

Matthew hurried into the truck and sat right next to Roy watching the man consume beans from a can using a plastic spoon. Matthew watched him attentively, hoping that some of the man's heroic attributes would rub off on him. The man glanced at Matthew and muttered, "Hey kid! How are you doing?"

"Hi, my name is Matthew!" Matthew blurted out, nervously.

Roy sat his beans can down in the cup holster and wiped a clean napkin over his clean shaven face. Matthew later found out that one of the very few routines Roy had was shaving his face twice a day with an old fashioned shaver. "Hey kid. I'm Seth's mother's brother, Roy Lovering. Your parents are looking for you, you know."

"I know," Matthew answered affirmatively, "why is your last name Lovering if you are Seth's mother's brother?"

"My piece of shit brother-in-law changed his name when he married my sister," Roy stated, bitterly, "that man does not deserve the wife or the child he has! My sister and Seth are too good for that no-good son of a gun!"

Matthew silently agreed with Roy. Matthew wished he was a little older so that he could feed Seth's dad to a pack of hungry wolves, but he was still only a child. "So you were a war hero?" Matthew asked curiously.

"If you mean a war veteran, yes I am," Roy nodded, tiredly, "I served my country in the Vietnam War and earned the Purple Heart." Roy reached over to open his glove box and grabbed the heart-shaped purple and gold medal out. Matthew stared in amazement at it. On the back of the medal were the words `FOR MILITARY MERIT.' "I got it from being wounded in Vietnam by the enemy, so my commanding officer told me. I don't remember it, but I remember waking up in the infirmary a week after it happened with stitches in my head from a bullet wound."

"You're so cool!" Matthew complimented, trying to control himself. It would not be good if he rhapsodized about brave and heroic Roy was to his face. Roy would have probably thought he was a complete spaz and that would have been disastrous.

"Thanks kid," Roy said. Before Matthew could ask Roy anymore questions, Seth and Lucas loaded up the truck and got inside. Seth sat next to Matthew and Lucas sat next to Seth. Matthew wondered if Lucas was still worried about the reading Lucas got earlier when he pricked his finger. The old truck started up loudly and they were on their way to Matthew's house, according to what Roy told them after they all were in the car.


	9. Bad Seed

After the tattoo was done, Matthew chatted with Seth and Lucas for about a half an hour before they both had to leave to return to their own lives outside of the prison. His tattoo was bandaged up by Seth and Matthew was instructed to leave the bandage on for two hours. Further instructions included taking a shower using Dove body soap. Matthew sneered; Dove soap is what he already had to wash himself with at the prison. He also had to pat the tattoo dry with a paper towel after he was done in the shower. He was also instructed not to pick at the tattoo. It was like Seth was treating him like a child or was acting like Matthew's own mother. Speaking of his mother, he started to remember day that Roy returned all three of them to Matthew's parents.

"You're going to be fine, dear," Eddy's mother replied to nine year old Lucas who sat in the McGee's uncomfortable couch. "Just drink plenty of water and go play with your friends. You'll be just fine. Also, cut down on the sweets. Having a treat once in a while would not hurt you, but don't make a habit out of it. Also, you have to remember to take your insulin and medicine regularly. That could have been why it was so high along with the sweets. You're a big boy now, Lucas. You shouldn't have to be told when to take your medicine."

"Yes ma'am," Lucas replied.

"No more surprise camp trips from any of you, especially you, Matthew," Margaret addressed the two boys that were standing behind her. Matthew was holding onto Eddy while Seth was quietly standing still, watching both Margaret and Lucas. "You three could have been kidnapped! You could have been killed! I was worried sick about you, Matthew! I called the cops as soon as you disappeared! Don't do that to me again, Matthew! Do you understand?"

"I guess, Mom," Matthew grumbled.

"Now run off and play," Margaret waved them off, taking Eddy from Matthew's arms, "I have to make a call to inform the police department that you and your friends are alright. I'm sure their parents are very worried about them."

"-Or having a party," Matthew interjected sarcastically.

Margaret blinked rapidly, "excuse me?"

"Nothing," Matthew sighed and rushed off to catch up with Lucas and Seth.

"Okay, I will be a reaper and you would be a warlock. Matthew would probably be a demon, most likely," Seth explained to Lucas.

Matthew chimed in, "Jesus, you guys are lame! Do you two need me to hold your hands and show you how to be cool cats?"

"We were about to play creatures," Lucas whined, "You nag worst than the chicks at school. I'm going to start calling you Mattie for now on."

"What did you call me," Matthew whispered threateningly as he grabbed the collar of Lucas' shirt. He threw Lucas to the ground like a rag doll and sat on him.

Seth chimed in, "Well, Mattie does have a bigger set of jugs than most of the girls we go to school with."

"You want to be next, Seth?" Matthew shouted, "Don't call me that."

Seth remained quiet until Matthew grabbed Lucas' ankle and starting twisting it, "Say uncle, Lucas! C'mon I can't hear you!"

"Uncle! Uncle!" Lucas screamed out, trying to crawl away from the weight Matthew had on his legs. Struggling did not do Lucas much good. Matthew kept twisting, taking his anger out on Lucas' ankle. Lucas needed to be reminded of his place in the scheme of things. Matthew viewed it no differently as a parent punishing a child.

"Stop it, Matthew! Stop hurting Lucas," Seth yelled out as he puffed out his chest to appear intimidating to Matthew, "Lucas and I may not be able to beat you up by ourselves, but together, we can make you cry to your mama!"

As soon as Matthew released Lucas, the scrawny boy scrambled towards Seth, taking refuge behind the other boy. Matthew walked towards Seth and leaned close to Seth's face, "why do you have to be so serious? I was only messing with you two. Chill out! If you two realize your places as my minions, nothing bad would happen to you two. Now, I'll find a better game to play other than that dumb creatures game."

Matthew patted the shocked boy on the cheek and walked inside, growling when he heard Seth retort, "Whatever you say, Mattie!"

Matthew saw his mother hang up the phone in the kitchen and went into the closet to see what was going to happen. He feared punishment from the police for disappearing to the forest for a few days. Margaret turned to Carl, "well, the police are going to come and talk with the boys about sneaking out of the house and having unsupervised camping trips."

"What about the two boys that went with Matthew? Are their parents coming to get them?" Carl asked.

"The father of one of the boys is on a business trip and won't be back for a few days," Margaret answered. Matthew knew that Margaret was talking about Lucas' father.

"Christ, he couldn't have postponed it until his kid was actually found?" Carl exclaimed gruffly, taking a couple of puffs from the lit cigar between his fingers. "I'll never understand rich people. I mean his kid is a diabetic for Christ's sake and he's more worried about his damn career. I'm employed too and I still took a few days off to find my damn kid. What about the other one's kid? I know that it would be foolish to leave the kid in his uncle's care due to the uncle's mental condition, the one that we talked with at the door, but what about his parents? I mean the kid's mother was looking for him."

"There's no answer at his house when I tried to call over there before I checked on the diabetic boy. I believe the diabetic boy's name is Lucas. I also think the other boy's name is Seth. I'll have to ask later. We'll watch over them until their parents pick them up."

"What are we going to do about our own boy?" Carl asked.

"What do you mean?" Margaret asked.

"Think about it, Margaret. Matthew took off without informing each of us." Carl rubbed the bridge of his nose, "I think he purposely ran away from home."

Margaret frowned, "Don't be ridiculous. Matthew is just a boy, not some angry teenager. I think he wanted to spend some time with his friends. I do believe we should scold him for it, but heaven forbid, I don't believe that we should overreact to a childhood mishap. Maybe the police visit would prove to the boys that what they did was wrong."

"I think we're raising a bad seed, Margaret," Carl spoke sternly. "He's been acting up quite a bit lately. I mean we got calls from the school every other day over him barely passing any of his subjects in school or causing mischief. Every time I try to correct him anymore, it doesn't seem to faze him. It's like I'm talking to a brick wall." Carl took a deep breath, staring glumly at his cigar. "I don't even know where I have gone wrong with him."

"Honey," Margaret rushed over to console her husband by wrapping her big arms around him, "you're just exhausted. We both are. Look, I'm going to take a part-time job to help out with expenses. It's not fair to you if I don't help make ends meet."

"What about Eddy? We can't afford to take Eddy to daycare let alone hire a babysitter. Who's going to watch Eddy?" Carl asked, peering up at his wife.

"We'll have Matthew watch Eddy for a couple of hours in the afternoon and afterschool when he starts school again." Margaret answered. "He's nine years old. He's legally old enough to babysit Eddy for a few hours until I get home."

"Are you crazy, woman?" Carl cried out, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Matthew is not responsible to care for a child! I don't give a damn what the law says!"

"We don't have much choice. Aurora and her husband have their hands full with their own kid and Dad's mind is too far gone to care for Eddy." Margaret stated, "It would be a good learning experience for Matthew. You can take an hour lunch break in the afternoon when I go to work to watch Eddy and see that Matthew gets off of the bus. Then I'll get off of work at six to fix the boys dinner. There are plenty of places in Peach Creek that are looking for part-time work and I'm sure that we can do this, Carl."

"I hope so," Carl replied.

In the closet, Matthew was fuming. Not only did his dad call him a "bad seed," but his parents also expected him to waste a good chunk of his afternoon taking care of his baby brother? He needed to get out of there. If not, he would throw himself to the floor, kicking his feet and screaming how unfair everything was.

He bolted out of the closet and rushed in a random direction. His only destination was to go outside to Lucas and Seth. He ended up in the last place he wanted to be; Eddy's nursery. Eddy babbled happily in his playpen, banging the buttons on a toy register. The empty toy register opened and Eddy babbled again in a disappointed tone at the empty register.

Eddy noticed Matthew glaring at him and rushed over to the side of playpen as fast as his little legs could take him. Eddy leaned against the mesh barrier and held his chubby arms out at his brother, not realizing the foul mood his older brother was in. Matthew glared at his brother furiously, his eyes were mere slits that barely shown the rage boiling in those black abysses.

"I hate you," Matthew snarled quietly in the dark part of the room. The only sunshine that came was from one of the windows that shone a bright light where Eddy was like a natural spotlight on the little tyke. Eddy grimaced at the tone Matthew used, but was not deterred to receive affection from his brother. He waved his little arms and whined at Matthew. "I said I hate you!" Matthew shouted, stomping towards the playpen as Eddy's eyes started to water up. "Stop crying, you little brat! I'll hit you if you don't!"

Eddy wailed at the sound of his brother's shouts, which unintentionally provoked Matthew's rage. Matthew raised his hand and swung it across Eddy's face. The impact of the slap caused Eddy to land on the soft interior of the playpen, his head landing on a plush bird. Eddy wailed even louder, hurting Matthew's eardrums.

Matthew quickly exited out of the room through the door. Eddy's wails were muffled once he shut the door. Lucas and Seth stared at him in wonder. Matthew quickly remembered that he was supposed to bring out one of his squirt guns to spray his two unruly friends. Matthew just shrugged and took off his shirt to cool his body down. He was feeling really sweaty and uncomfortable.

"Is that a zit on you?" Seth asked.

"A what?" Matthew looked down and spotted a small bulbous white speck on his chest that was the same size as a pen mark. "What the heck is that?"

"It's only a zit, dude," Seth stated. "You get them when you start puberty." Seth then quickly added, "When your body starts to become more adult. Though I heard of older kids going through this, I have not heard of a nine year old going through it."

"Looks like I'm more mature than you two," Matthew boasted.

"Your body at least," Seth grumbled, "I'm not so sure about your brain."

Then Lucas chimed in, pushing Matthew's arms down, "put your arms down, Mattie! You smell like the gym my dad goes to."

"Shut up, Lucas!" Matthew yelled, "All three of us haven't had an actual bath since we went into the woods."

"But my armpits don't smell like yours!" Lucas replied, holding his nose.

"It's another sign of his body becoming more mature," Seth stated, "All Mattie needs is a good shower and deodorant." Seth noticed Eddy's cries, "We should check on your brother, Mattie. He might need his diaper changed or something."

Matthew huffed at Seth's suggestion, but followed Lucas and Seth inside anyway. The door to adulthood certainly opened that day. He quickly realized how much he hated his younger brother and his father, but never fully revealed it until later. The changes in his body were set into motion as well. He was an early bloomer and it may have had a major impact on Matthew's psyche at least as far as aggression goes. This is if the quack prison psychologist that visits him every once in a while is to be believed.


	10. Three Kids and a Baby

It was time for Matthew to take off the bandage. Matthew peeled off the bandage very carefully to not ruin the best thing that came out of allowing Seth to torture him for several hours. The whole area around his tattoo was bright red. Despite that, Matthew could see every little detail put into the outline. That is going to be one hell of a tattoo once Seth colors it in for his birthday. Matthew could already assume the tattoo's artistic merit based upon the outline and how much effort Seth usually puts into coloring tattoos.

He could just imagine the face on his princess's face when he gets out of jail and shows off his tattoo. He would not completely delude himself to believe his little princess would be outwardly ecstatic over the tattoo, but he was sure he would hear the appreciation from the younger in his moans and whimpers. Fuck, he was starting to get himself worked up again.

Just getting a new tattoo was enough for Matthew's head to go completely into the gutter with sexual fantasies brought on by sexual frustration. Matthew probably thought about sex twice as much as the average man. Even getting a nice new shirt would have Matthew fantasizing about his current fixation tearing at it with an intense, animalistic fervor, begging to be penetrated by his sizable cock.

Sex played a huge role in his life. It also brought him momentary relief, a chance for him to lower his defenses and relax in the peaceful calm of post-orgasmic bliss. There was only one tryst that he hated, but he could not even consider that a tryst since he never consented to the act. Other than that tragic event, there was never a cunt or an asshole that he did not love. Hell, there were some that he loved more than others. The proof of that were the three kids he had and the current ache in his loins over thinking about his little princess. He even loved the sex between him and Sasha and he hated Sasha with every single fiber of his being.

_`You're such a dirty little slut, aren't you boy?' _A sickly sweet voice from the past whispered into his mind_, "You would accept any kind of sexual attention just so you can feel wanted. Well, I'm going to fuck the whore straight out of you and make you into my perfect little housewife."_

"Shut the fuck up you piece of shit!" Matthew shouted and hit the concrete wall with his fist. Pain ebbed from his knuckles as a crimson steam flowed from the wound. He thought of Roy's kind face to help him calm down. A couple of guards were startled by the sudden noise.

One of them, a young new prison guard that was fresh out of college, tapped the window on the door with his nightstick. A pair of headphones from the 20 year old guard's walkman hung from the back of his neck like the world's ugliest necklace. "What's going on here, McGee?"

"Nothing," Matthew faked a pleasant smile, "I just accidently hit my hand against the wall is all."

"Do you need to be escorted to the prison nurse?" The young guard asked.

"No, I'll be fine." Matthew assured him. When the young guard turned to check on other inmates, Matthew muttered under his breath, "Fucking jackass." He could still hear the guard's irritating rap music obliterating the silence with its constant pounding.

Matthew breathed a sigh of relief when he could no longer hear that irritating racket. He looked at his hand again and seen his hand had stopped bleeding. He imagined his little princess licking his hand sensually, cleaning up the blood. His cock stirred at the thought. The antidepressants were finally granting him some relief.

He pulled down the orange pants of his prison uniform to release his throbbing member. He spit into his hand and got to work. His erection arose from the slow even strokes. Beads of precum formed from the slit and Matthew spread it across the head of his shaft with his thumb. His pubic hair scrapped his hand as he continued to stroke himself. His pubic area has not had a decent shave ever since he was first locked up. It's not like he was ever going to fuck anyone in prison anyway. Even if he wasn't in solitary confinement, he would rather not risk a chance getting HIV, STDs, or scabies. He watched himself in the mirror on the wall as he pleasured himself, imagining that Edd was the one jacking him off.

His imagination took over as he continued his maneuvers. He imagined Edd shyly jerking him off, entranced by the sight of the convict's cock. His erection was right underneath Edd's chin, leaking precum as Edd leaned forward in front of it. The imagined servile attitude of the young man was fueling the fire within Matthew. He imagined that Edd took a teasing lick across the head to get a small taste Matthew's essence.

Matthew was almost at his peak after 15 minutes of getting himself off. He then imagined that his dick was close to Edd's face as he was reaching his peak. He was ready to paint Edd's face with the pearly white beads of liquid coming out of his dick. A couple of well-maneuvered tugs later, and Matthew came undone. His back was arched in an uncomfortable position from his orgasm, but Matthew hardly noticed. He felt content after finally being able to take care of his sexual needs, no thanks to the pills that the damned prison psychologist put him on. He wiped the cum from his hand against the thin mattress and laid there, listening as his heartbeat was slowly returning to a normal rhythm.

It was just in time too. He heard the sound of the young guard's music returning. He groaned and covered his ears, kicking the wall once as he voiced his disapproval of the music the young guard listened to. Even when rap first was starting to get popular in the late 1980s, he still found the music to be a waste of time and resources. Speaking of music, he remembered an argument he had with Seth and Lucas the very same day that he found out that his parents wanted him to take on some of the responsibilities of watching Eddy.

"So what kind of music do you guys listen to?" Matthew asked.

"I listen to New Order and Duran Duran." Lucas replied.

Seth answered Matthew right after Lucas, "I listen to The Cure and David Bowie."

"God, you two are lame!" Matthew groaned, overdramatically "Haven't you two ever heard of Billy Idol or Bon Jovi?" When he seen the blank looks on their faces, he groaned again, "Alice Cooper? Twisted Sister? Seriously, you guys don't listen to any hair metal either?"

Lucas shook his head and Seth replied, "No, I haven't."

"You guys are lame!" Matthew replied, shaking his head.

"Speaking of music, I heard that Sasha attended a Nana Mouskouri concert with a chick and his dad," Lucas gossiped. All three of them were in Eddy's room, talking over the crying infant. Lucas, the naïve child, had no idea of the reason why Eddy cried or the reason why part of Eddy's face was red. Lucas assumed aloud that Eddy fell and hit his cheek.

However it seemed that Seth was more suspicious of Matthew than Lucas was. Seth shot him a glare; his eyes were filled with reasonable suspicion. Matthew glowered at Seth in response and watched as Seth lowered his head in defeat like an animal that had just submitted to more dangerous one. Matthew smirked and watched as his baby brother kicked Lucas repeatedly in the face.

"Hey, I was only trying to hold you, you little brat!" Lucas exclaimed as he was kicked again. Lucas pinched the crying baby's cheeks hard and kneaded the baby's cheeks, which only enraged Eddy further. "Man, this baby has a pair of lungs on it!"

"No kidding. I have to deal with that screaming on a daily basis," Matthew complained, his interest was piqued at the sound of Sasha going to a concert with a girl, "How does a butthole like Sasha get a chick to agree to go to a concert with him? He sits at the loser table with us!"

"The chick just moved here from what I heard," Lucas replied. "Still though, how does a butthole like that end up being the first one from the loser's table to get a girlfriend?"

"Face it, dude; He's probably the closest thing to normal within our table," Seth explained, "no girl is going to want to date the school fatso, a guy who wears a mask all of the time, or a psycho who cut up the class hamster. It's fine though. The girls at our school can date whoever they want to. " Seth suddenly had a devious look on his face and starting tickling Eddy's feet. Eddy squirmed and put his arms out, trying to bat away Lucas and Seth.

"Oh boys, the police officer's here!" Margaret announced from the doorway, "You should head to the front door to meet up with him. I don't think little Eddy is in the mood to be played with right now." She hurried towards Eddy and picked him, cooing softly into Eddy's ear, trying to get the child to calm down. Margaret also had no idea what had occurred between him and Eddy. Even if Lucas did not pinch at Eddy's cheeks like an overly affectionate grandmother, Matthew could have just blamed the red mark upon Eddy's face on a fall, like he had done numerous times after the incident for the various injuries that he had inflicted upon his younger brother. His parents were none the wiser.

Margaret also added cheerfully, "Also, your clothes are now in the dryer. I want to get a picture of you three to put on the fridge after the cops leave."

"Yes mom," Matthew replied. The visit with the police officer went as expectedly. The police officer warned the boys of the dangers of taking unexpected camping trips and explained that their three-day disappearance had everyone involved worried over the possibility that the three of them were kidnapped. There was no evidence of their true intent to run away from their homes. The police had no reason to expect it, so they were left off with a stern warning.

After the cop left, their clothes were washed. Matthew's yellow jersey and jeans were cleaned to perfection. Seth's camouflage pants, white tee shirt, and old army jacket looked better than they ever did. Lucas grayish blue polo and designer jeans looked as new as they always did. His mom had a talent of taking care of clothes. There was even a whole closet in their house full of clothes that came with the house that his mother had taken care of. They quickly got changed and rushed outside to pose for the camera. Four pictures were taken, one for each of the boys and one for Matthew's parents.

Nightfall quickly approached and the boys were introduced to Matthew's room for the first time. He showed them the old blue taxidermy camel that stood by the wall. He showed them his foldout bed was hidden in a red refrigerator, the heater, his box of toys, an eight ball, the window viewing out to the backyard and an old heat vent. Both Lucas and Seth viewed the room as strange for various reasons. Seth believed that the room needed to have more of an artistic vibe to the room. Lucas just viewed the room as too eccentric. What do they know about good tastes?

While Lucas and Seth were using the phone to try to contact their parents, Matthew went digging through Seth's belongings and stole the porn magazine from the bag. He quickly hid the magazine in his closet, not feeling a bit of remorse for his behavior. Afterward the three had dinner and gotten showers. That night was also the first time he had seen his friends completely naked when they were trying on his old pajamas to find one that fit, which they were able to find after some digging. He can honestly say that he was not the least bit embarrassed to see them without any clothes on than he was when he peeked in on Sasha. He did not understand his reactions in the least.

Once all three of them were dressed, Lucas was looking through the horoscope section in the newspaper. Matthew and Seth quickly found out their star signs from reading their horoscopes. Matthew is a Gemini, Lucas is a Scorpio, and Seth is an Aquarius. Lucas had a strange fascination with horoscopes that neither he nor Seth fully understood. Lucas claimed that star signs influenced a person's personality, but Matthew thought that Lucas was full of it, but considered using horoscopes for a future scam anyway.

All three of them eventually lay down upon Matthew's bed and tried to sleep. When Matthew was trying to get some sleep, Seth whispered to him, "Hey, Mattie. You should try to teach Eddy how to scam people. I think it would be good for you."

Matthew snorted, "Yeah right! The only thing Pipsqueak is going to do is poop in his diaper, cry, and drive away business!"

"I mean when he gets older," Seth replied, "He's not going to be a crying baby forever."

"I'll think about it," Matthew grumbled as he shut his eyes.


	11. Misty Holliston

A couple of days after Matthew had gotten a tattoo, he received letters and Christmas cards from his three children. He even received a phone call from his oldest, Bonnie, who yakked his ear off. Most of her conversation was on a scam which involved selling her male classmates toy cars, matchbox cars to be exact that she made with cheap supplies. Then the mostly one-sided conversation quickly turned towards the subject of a boy Bonnie fancied at her elementary school. Not exactly a topic he really wanted to hear about.

He could really care less how his daughters grew up in regards to relationships with the opposite sex. They could end up on a trashy talk show at the age of sixteen, demanding that ten men to take a paternity test and Matthew would just shrug it off. He was no saint. He slept his way through Peach Creek before he got thrown out of the house. The only problem was that he really did not want to hear about it.

He had plenty of fixations since he was a child. He used the term fixation, because there was no other word to accurately describe how he felt about certain particular people. He would not use the terms "boyfriend" or "girlfriend," because that would imply that he would obliged to romantic feelings for the other individual, which none existed. He didn't like the term "casual fling" either, because that would imply that he would not give a shit if the person slept around with other people while they were fucking him. He's much too jealous to let someone move onto what was rightfully his.

Fixation was the perfect analogy of how he felt for people like Edd well. He first came up with the term back when he was only fourteen and watched Seth go through heroin withdraws. Seth described the emotional aspect of his addiction as something he would go through great lengths to achieve a moment of tranquility which only left him wanting more after he lost his high. While Matthew drank alcohol like it was going out of style, the only thing he could compare it to would be his sex life. He would do anything to get inside of his fixations and would want more after that. His fixation now was his princess, back when he was only ten years old, it was _her_.

Darcy was one narrow-minded son of a bitch in a lot of ways. Anything that did not fit his elitist WASP view of world were harassed and ridiculed. The loser's table was a frequent target, especially Lucas who was part-Russian. While Lucas got harassed by Darcy for Lucas playing surgeon with the class hamster to Lucas' understandable fear of sugary sweets to Lucas' participation in Matthew's scams; None of that compared to Lucas having a Russian grandmother.

Lucas explained that Darcy was a young mouthpiece to his father's ethnocentric ideals and bitter resentment. Lucas' father, a British immigrant, got promoted for a position at work over Darcy's father, who is the heir of some old family who moved to Peach Creek during the 1950s. It was not uncommon to hear the words "mutt" or "commie" uttered from that smarmy bastard. Matthew's favorite had to be "the working class rogue's well-groomed and ill-trained dog" which Darcy spouted in regards to Lucas being Matthew's lackey.

One event in particular caused Matthew to create the El Mongo Stink Bomb in Darcy's honor. When Seth and Matthew had to spend half of their school day in-school suspension to catch up on their grades, Darcy and his goons cornered Lucas and threw their lunches at him, screaming "go back to Soviet Russia," humiliating Lucas in the process. Matthew heard about it when he and Seth got out of the classroom where their in-school suspension was at from Lucas who was covered in various stains and blubbered to Matthew about what had happened.

Matthew told Lucas to "man up" and that he'll come up with a plan for Darcy. He spent the rest of the school day and night coming up with the design of the stink bomb. Matthew then spent a good part of the day, sneaking around the school, gathering items needed for the stink bomb, including a foul-smelling sock from a middle school student's gym locker. He gathered up the supplies and met up with Seth and Lucas in the science lab across from Darcy's locker. Lucas had brought an old plastic propeller that he disassembled from one of his old toy boats a year ago. Matthew wore a scowl on his face and whispered; "Now it's the time to get back at that prissy bastard!"

Matthew mixed the concoction inside of the enormous shell of the to-be stink bomb while Lucas attached the propeller and tested it with the remote. "That Darcy Bishop thinks he's so cool and stuff, but let's see how cool he really is once he stinks forever!" Matthew mixed the green concoction, probably looking like a clichéd witch from a Halloween movie. "Nobody but me humiliates my lackeys and gets away with it!" Matthew dumped the contents from hot sauce bottle he stole from cafeteria kitchen and kept stirring.

"Matthew, this is crazy!" Seth tried to reason with Matthew, keeping his distance from the stink bomb. "I know Darcy is a piece of crap, but this plan is crazy! You did not even think this plan all the way through."

"I'm surprised Matthew even could up with a halfway decent design," Lucas remarked.

"I give up!" Seth huffed, "is the stink bomb almost ready? Darcy should be at his locker anytime to get his books for the next class."

"Almost Seth," Matthew replied, adding the smelly sock to the mix. "-And it's done!"

All three of them remained silent as mice until Darcy showed up, taking a couple of books out of his locker. Matthew quickly approached him, concealing his devious glee, "hey Darcy! You're looking well today!"

"Cut the small talk, fatty! What scam are you trying to pull now?" Darcy sneered, "I have better things to do than deal with a working class scam artist."

"I've got something to show you, Darcy," Matthew remained calm. He was going to have the last laugh. Oh he can already taste the savory taste of revenge. "It's in the science lab. Imagine it, your very own blimp. You could fly home without the use of a private plane. Think about it! No having to deal with working class pilots. You would have more money to spend upon whatever you buy."

"Where is this blimp? How much is this going to cost me?" Darcy asked, unconvinced.

"For you, only a quarter!" Matthew replied, "It's in the science lab, follow me!" Matthew led Darcy inside and showed him the `blimp,' "Isn't she a beaut? I call her the El Mongo S-Blimp!"

"It looks ugly!" Darcy made a face.

"It's a blimp; we could throw a fresh coat of paint on it for free!" Matthew insisted. "Why don't you get under that and see for yourself! Matthew pointed to the bottom of the stink bomb that was held up by chains. Just as Matthew was about to discuss the "scam" further, he noticed that one of the ropes he used was starting to break from the stink bomb's weight.

Darcy shrugged and crawled in the space under the stink bomb. Just as Matthew was about to signal for Lucas and Seth to get out of there before the stink bomb bursts, the stink bomb malfunctioned. The propeller started automatically, causing the part to become erratic and causing the propeller to splinter from the repeated contact with the wall.

Matthew quickly dashed towards the other side of the room in awe as Darcy started to notice what was going on, "what's going on? What did you do?" Darcy snapped. Darcy started to crawl away from the stink bomb, but it was too late. The erratic propeller cut the already weak rope and the stink bomb fell on top of Darcy. Just their luck, Sasha also walked down the hallway near the science lab and spotted them.

"C'mon, you dumbasses!" Matthew grabbed Seth and Lucas by the arm, dragging them towards the door. They stopped and glanced back when they heard the stink bomb pop while it was still crushing Darcy. The smell burn Matthew's nostrils, causing his eyes to water.

"You idiot!" Seth screamed, covering his mask tightly. Not even the mask could protect him against the foul stench. Seth pushed Matthew with his free hand, causing the other kid to stagger a bit.

Sasha was the next one to scream, "I'm telling on you, you psycho dork! I can't breathe!"

"Get back, you little rat!" Matthew coughed between words. He started to chase after Sasha until he heard Darcy wailing. He had almost forgotten that Darcy received the worse of it. In the distance, he could hear the sounds of other students and teacher screaming loudly about the smell.

"You pompous thug! It stinks so badly! I'm going to call my daddy and have him put you in a reform school for boys!" Darcy threatened. The blond tilted his head to the side and puking up his lunch onto the floor beside him.

Matthew snorted in laughter. He was not afraid of Darcy's father. "Put a sock in it! Where the heck is Lucas?"

"He passed out from the smell," Seth informed Matthew, slapping him across the head. "This is all your fault! You should have tested it first!"

Matthew slapped Seth back and they tussled on the floor before the principal came and broke them up, sentencing Matthew, Seth, and even Lucas to a week of in-school suspension. The school was closed for two days due to the strong residue smell from the stink bomb, even after the staff opening up all of the windows. The stench still could be smelled from certain areas of school when the school deemed the school safe enough for students to return. The only ones that were injured were a couple of kids who twisted their ankles running from stench and Darcy who was crushed by the thing.

Matthew, Seth, and Lucas went straight to the in-school suspension room where they would have to deal with whatever stooge the principal put in charge of them. Matthew even saw Darcy on his way to the room and made gagging sounds as if he was throwing up, mocking Darcy's threats toward him three days previous in a falsetto voice. Darcy and his merry band of brown-nosers did not find the joke humorous at all, but to Matthew; the joke was a riot.

The three sat down at a desk and waited for the student to come in. The principal would usually get some sap to agree to watch their classmates for a day for extra credit in their classes. Seth doodled in his notebook, Lucas listened to his cassette walkman and drummed his fingers on the desk, and Matthew vandalized underneath his desk with a Sharpie.

"When is this sap supposed to get here?" Matthew groaned out in boredom, "I know if we got stuck with Sasha, I'm going to put tacks in his seat and make his whole day hell."

"I hope we didn't end up with Sasha either." Seth agreed, "He's a complete butt kisser!"

Matthew noticed Sasha walking towards the door. What caught his curiosity the most was the female that Sasha chatted up. He can tell that the girl is new, because no other girl in the school had black curly hair. Sasha chatted with her more than he chatted with anyone that they've known. Matthew felt jealousy consume him. He tried to befriend Sasha and got spat in the face over his proposal. Who the hell was this chick that Sasha was talking to? Matthew wrote a quick note to Lucas, asking about the girl. Matthew passed the note to Seth, who gave the note a quick glance before passing it to Lucas.

Lucas took a quick glance at the note between writing up a message of his own and passing the note back to Matthew. Lucas written that the girl's name was Misty Holliston. She was a new classmate of theirs who also got shunned to the loser's table much like Matthew was two years previously. Any hope Matthew had at possibly having the girl join their group was dashed at the final piece of information Lucas left him; the girl was best friends with Sasha and was the same one who attended the Nana Mouskouri concert with him.

Matthew's breath hitched as soon as the girl entered the room. Between the curtains of dark inky waves was a beautiful porcelain-like face and sharp grey eyes. The girl wore a beaded seashell necklace around her neck, a white blouse, a wool skirt, and Mary Jane shoes with lacey socks. How did Sasha end up associating with a chick as pretty as her?

A new sensation took over inside of his chest. He has not felt like this since he spied on Sasha and whenever he remembered the incident. Like Matthew, the ten year old girl was also heavyset and an "early bloomer." The girl's chest was as well-endowed as a high school girl's. The girl's posture was awkward, due to shyness. Matthew could not help himself but stare. He really could not get enough of the mere sight of her.

"H-hello, I'm Misty Holliston" The girl stuttered, setting her book with a fairy on the cover down, "I-I'm going to be watching you three for the principal today." She nervously grabbed inside of her book bag and took out a candy bar, consuming it quickly to possibly help her with her nerves.

"A-are there any questions?" She asked.

"I've got one," Matthew raised his hand, "the principal normally does not send pretty girls to watch over me in ISS. Is day special or something?"

Misty looked baffled by the statement. She would not even answer that. Seth and Lucas roared with laughter at Matthew. It was not every day that they got to witness Matthew make a complete fool of himself. The two quickly became silent when Matthew shot them a look. He was still new at trying to woo his fixations at the time. The silence already had Matthew imagining what her lips would feel like against his.

"Quit making fun of me," She cried, darting towards the teacher's desk as if he put hot coals under her feet. He was not deterred though. He finished a couple of assignments that he should have done months ago and strolled over to her. She was working on her language arts homework when Matthew approached her.

"Word around school is that you're a big fan of Nana Mouskouri," Matthew spoke, leaning over the large wooden desk.

"Yes, I am," She answered.

"Did you know that I can play an instrument?" Matthew lied. At the time, he could not even play the recorder without it sounding more like the gym teacher's whistle.

"What instrument do you play?" Misty asked, curiously.

"I play the harp like a regular cupid," Matthew boasted. At the time, that was a lie. He picked an instrument that he thought sounded like something girls would've been impressed by.

"I-I'll have to listen to you p-play sometime," The girl replied, her posture not loosening up any. "Please, go back to your seat though. I would get in trouble if you are out of your desk."

Matthew had written Lucas and Seth a note once he got back to his desk, demanding that they behave for Misty. They left her alone, but they would not let Matthew hear the end of it after school. They chanted various love songs mockingly to purposely infuriate Matthew. They also expressed their disbelief that Matthew would fall this fast for a girl, not completely understanding what Matthew sees in her. Two less people that he would have to worry about moving in on her, he figured. He still was paranoid of Sasha stealing her away though.

It was kind of bizarre to remember in retrospect that he was worried about his future fixation stealing away his fixation at the time. Though, it probably shouldn't have been too bizarre, considering he was also paranoid of Sasha stealing away Edd years later.


End file.
